Stellan Skarsgård has officially joined the cast of Legendary’s upcoming Dune reboot. He’s set to play one of the films villains, Baron Harkonnen, whose family previously ruled the planet of Arrakis.
Skarsgård recently starred as Bill Anderson in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, and is best known for playing characters like Jan Nyman in Breaking The Waves, Dr Erik Selvig in the Thor films, Bootstrap Bill Turner in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films and Martin Vanger in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, among others.
The casting follows the recent news that Guardians Of The Galaxy and Blade Runner 2049‘s Dave Bautista has been added to the film, and in doing so is reuniting with director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival). For Dune, Bautista will be playing Skarsgård’s character’s brutish nephew.
Skarsgård and Bautista join the already-cast Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name, Beautiful Boy) as Paul Atreides and Rebecca Ferguson (The Greatest Showman, The Girl On The Train) as Lady Jessica.
Villeneuve is directing, and writing the script alongside Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts.
The Dune reboot is based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel of the same name, and follows the 1984 film adaptation, which was directed by David Lynch and starred Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here’s the novel’s Amazon synopsis:
The Duke of Atreides has been manoeuvred by his arch-enemy, Baron Harkonnen, into administering the desert planet of Dune. Although it is almost completely without water, Dune is a planet of fabulous wealth, for it is the only source of a drug prized throughout the Galactic Empire. The Duke and his son, Paul, are expecting treachery, and it duly comes – but from a shockingly unexpected place.
Then Paul succeeds his father, and he becomes a catalyst for the native people of Dune, whose knowledge of the ecology of the planet gives them vast power. They have been waiting for a leader like Paul Atreides, a leader who can harness that force…
Dune does not yet have a release date. Get all the latest sci-fi news with every issue of SciFiNow.