Denis Villeneuve Confirms What We Suspected All Along About The New Villain In Dune: Part Two

Warning: this article contains spoilers for "Dune: Part One"

Now that "Dune: Part One" is officially a hit at the box office, and now that the sequel has been greenlit, it's time to start looking ahead at what "Dune: Part Two" might look like.

"Dune: Part One" covers about half of Frank Herbert's seminal 1965 sci-fi epic (via Nerdist), leaving plenty of story left for the two remaining movies that director Denis Villenueve has planned. In "Dune: Part One," the story follows the powerful House Atreides and its heir, Paul (Timotheé Chalamet), as they relocate from their homeworld to the desert planet of Arrakis, where they take over the local spice mining operations. All of this is a setup engineered by the treacherous House Harkonnen, the previous operators of Arrakis' spice mines. When House Harkonnen carries out their coup and murders Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), Paul and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) seek refuge with the planet's Fremen community.

That's where the new movie ends. Going forward, "Dune: Part Two" will cover Paul's acceptance of the role of Kwisatz Haderach, the messiah-like "chosen one" to bring peace to the galaxy. To do that, it'll focus on Paul leading a revolution against the newly resurgent Harkonnens, with the help of the Fremen and his new love interest, Chani (Zendaya).

As always with an adaptation of a sprawling novel like "Dune," the big question is, which characters from the original will make the jump to the big screen and play major roles in the story? If you were wondering where the heir of House Harkonnen factors into all of this, Villenueve has an answer.

In an interview with Empire magazine published on October 16, 2021, Villenueve shed some light on his plans for "Dune: Part Two," specifically whether Feyd-Rautha will play a role in the story.

Villenueve said that Feyd-Rautha will "definitely" show up in "Dune: Part Two." "That's a choice that I personally brought on," Villenueve said. "There was enough characters that were introduced in this first part, and it will be more elegant to keep Feyd for Part Two. It will be definitely a very, very important character in the second part."

Feyd-Rautha is obviously a major character in the story. In the 1984 David Lynch adaptation of "Dune," the character was played by Sting. In the book, Feyd-Rautha has a very strong reason to hate Paul. Like Paul, Feyd-Rautha is the result of a centuries-long breeding program run by the Bene Gesserit that was supposed to result in a male member of House Harkonnen marrying a female member of House Atreides. They were supposed to give birth to the Kwisatz Haderach. Lady Jessica was originally supposed to give birth to that female, until she defied her mystical order and had Paul instead. At the risk of spoiling the rest of the plot, we'll leave it there.

The actor who will be playing Feyd-Rautha hasn't been announced yet, but fans have already been offering their choices on social media. Robert Pattinson, Bill Skaarsgard, Jared Leto, Ezra Miller, and Barry Keoghan are all popular choices (via Esquire).

Luckily, fans won't have to wait too long to find out what Villenueve has planned for the iconic character, as "Dune: Part Two" will premiere on October 23, 2023.