Extra possible than not, you probably did a double-take while you noticed Austin Butler in Dune: Part Two‘s first trailer. Because the villain Feyd-Rautha in sci-fi epic, Butler is bald, eyebrow-less, and closely armed. The Elvis and Masters of the Air actor additionally placed on an additional 25 kilos of muscle for the movie. “Once you really feel highly effective,” he stated in Esquire’s latest cover story, “that’s feeling.”
However simply who is that this odd-looking villain? Nicely, in Frank Herbert’s Dune novels, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is the nephew and inheritor to Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (performed by Stellan Skarsgård in 2021’s Dune). Butler even adjusted his accent for the movie to sound extra like Skarsgård—whereas additionally turning up his character’s merciless and crafty qualities. Nonetheless, audiences should not be too afraid of Butler’s transformation when Dune: Half Two premieres subsequent month! He might not be rocking a metallic wingsuit a la Sting’s Feyd-Rautha David Lynch’s Dune (1984), however Butler stated he is providing followers a “completely totally different factor.”
Elsewhere within the cowl story, Dune: Half Two director Denis Villeneuve promised that there’s nonetheless “rock-star intercourse attraction” to Feyd-Rautha. “I used to be floored,” he stated. “Austin was on the prime of my record.” Even throughout tough situations on set similar to harmful storms, heavy costumes, and “individuals collapsing” from the recent solar, Butler was desperate to get the right model of Feyd-Rautha on movie. “He insisted to stick with me, beside the digicam, all over these days, as a result of he was having an excessive amount of enjoyable,” the director says. “He didn’t wish to return to his trailer. I don’t keep in mind having seen an actor having enjoyable like that.”
Because you’re asking: Dune: Half Two‘s main man, Timothée Chalamet, completely picked up on Butler’s drive, too. “I noticed it from the primary desk learn,” Chalamet stated. “He’s questioning every part. He’s on a mission. He’s on a search. He’s not pretending to be the man with solutions. He’s always tinkering… It was motivating.”