Dune Part 2 Has Found The Perfect Emperor Shaddam IV

Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part One" took moviegoers on an intense journey to Arrakis and won six awards at the 94th Academy Awards, and its sequel is proving one of the most hotly-anticipated movies of 2023 already. According to Box Office Mojo, the Warner Bros. movie made over $108 million at the domestic box office and $400.6 million worldwide, making it the 13th highest-grossing film of 2021 in the U.S. The box office success of "Dune: Part One" gave Warner Bros. enough confidence to give Villeneuve's sequel a green light, and the director has said he'd like to adapt the novel's sequel, "Dune Messiah," as a third movie (via Yahoo!).

"Dune: Part One" ends with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), making tentative allies with the Fremen led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem) as the Harkonnens and Emperor Shaddam IV's personal army complete their slaughter of House Atreides. Though Lady Jessica insists that she and Paul should be smuggled off Arrakis to regroup, Paul — emboldened by his own premonitions and the psychedelic spice melange — makes the executive decision to follow the Fremen and ultimately work with them to seek revenge for his father's murder. 

The second movie, expected to release in October 2023, will complete the full story told in author Frank Herbert's original 1965 novel "Dune." While the first movie found an A-list cast that includes Chalamet, Ferguson, Bardem, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Jason Mamoa, and Dave Bautista, the sequel's reported castings just keep getting better and better.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Christopher Walken has been cast as Emperor Shaddam IV in Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Two." While the Emperor of the Known Universe does not appear at all in the first movie, which comprises roughly half of Frank Herbert's original 1965 novel, the character is expected to play a pivotal role in the upcoming 2023 sequel.

The universe's ruling family is shaping up nicely, with significant names dominating casting news: Florence Pugh is expected to play Princess Irulan, the emperor's daughter. Irulan and her father are only referred to in the third person in "Dune: Part One," as the Emperor commands House Atreides to take control of Arrakis only to conspire with House Harkonnen to kill Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), Paul, Lady Jessica, and the rest of their forces. 

The Emperor and Irulan are mentioned in passing as Paul starts to form a long-term plan to challenge Shaddam IV for the universe's throne as ultimate revenge for the massacre of House Atreides. Paul's plan, which involves harnessing the Fremen's "desert power" to resist the Harkonnen and Sardaukar's control of Arrakis, promises to play out in the sequel. THR also noted that Austin Butler has been cast as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, another of Vladimir Harkonnen's (Stellan Skarsgård) nephews who emerges as something of a rival to Paul in the novel's second half. In David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of "Dune," José Ferrer portrays the emperor, while musician Sting plays Feyd-Rautha.