“Dune: Part Two” Eying “Elvis” Star Austin Butler for Major Villain Role
We recently learned the sensational Florence Pugh is in talks to play Princess Irulan, the Emperor’s daughter, in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. Now, Deadline scoops that one of the biggest roles in the sequel is close to being cast. Austin Butler, set to make his big breakout in Buz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, is in negotiations to play the villain Feyd-Rautha, the cunning nephew of the Baron (played by Stellan Skarsgård) and arguably the biggest new role in the film.
In David Lynch’s 1984 version of Dune, his one-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 tome, Feyd-Rautha was played by none other than Sting. In Villeneuve’s Dune, the writer/director and his fellow screenwriters Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts broke the book into two and left Feyd-Rautha entirely out of the first half. This makes his role in Part Two that much more crucial, as he’ll be fighting at the behest of House Harkonnen and directly against Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides. In fact, one of the big set pieces in the book is a vicious knife duel between the two.
If Butler is cast as Feyd-Rautha and Pugh as Princess Irulan, that will just leave Emperor Shaddam IV as the last major unfilled role. The newcomers will be joining Chalamet, Zendaya, who plays the Fremen Chani, Rebecca Ferguson, who plays Lady Jessica, Paul’s mother, Javier Bardem as the Fremen Stilgar, and Josh Brolin as longtime House Atreides ally Gurney Halleck.
Dune: Part 2 is set for an October 20, 2023 release.
For more on Dune, check out these stories:
Florence Pugh Close to Joining “Dune: Part 2”
“Dune 2” is Officially Greenlit
“Dune” Hair & Makeup Department Head Donald Mowat’s Delightful & Disturbing Designs
Featured image: HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JULY 22: Austin Butler attends Sony Pictures’ “Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood” Los Angeles Premiere on July 22, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
