Stellan Skarsgård Joins Dune Reboot as the Villain

Stellan Skarsgård Joins Dune Reboot as a Villain

Stellan Skarsgård will be playing one of the villains in Legendary’s remake of Dune, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The actor will join Timothee Chalament, Rebecca Ferguson, and Dave Bautista in the project.

Skarsgård, who recently starred in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, will play Baron Harkonnen in Dune, whose family previously ruled Arrakis and has a long hatred of the Atreides family, plotting with the galactic emperor to destroy it. He is also the uncle to the brutish character to be played by Bautista.

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Ferguson was in talks to play Lady Jessica in the Dune reboot, the mother of Timothee Chalamet’s  Paul Atreides, Within Frank Herbert’s classic novel of the same name, Lady Jessica and Paul are part of a noble family who are forced to flee into the deserts of the planet Arrakis. Paul rises to become the new leader of the nomadic desert tribes. Lady Jessica helps convince the nomads that Paul is their messiah. From those humble beginnings, Paul’s quest will threaten to bring down the Emperor who plotted against his family.

Dune was previously adapted by David Lynch in 1985, and it was also a series of TV miniseries starting in 2000 on SYFY. Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival director Denis Villeneuve will helm the Dune remake. Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts wrote the script, and it is being produced by Legendary Pictures. The new Dune may begin filming as soon as next year, although a release date has not yet been announced.

If Dune proves to have better luck at the box office than Lynch’s film, then there’s plenty of material for sequels. Herbert wrote five additional Dune novels before his death in 1986. Herbert’s son, Brian Herbert and novelist Kevin J. Anderson collaborated on a number of Dune books as well. Brian Herbert and Anderson are both involved with the Dune remake, as an executive producer and creative consultant, respectively.

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

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