Warner Bros.
Austin Butler is bald and terrified at first glimpse of villainous Fed-Rotha from Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two.” Butler, a recent Oscar nominee for his performance as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” is one of the high-profile new additions to the cast of “Dune” alongside Florence Pugh and Christopher Walken. Feyd-Rautha previously played Sting in the 1984 David Lynch movie.
Feyd-Rautha is the nephew of Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and brother of the sadistic Glossu Rabban, played by Dave Bautista in the Villeneuve film franchise. The two brothers compete to become successors to the Harkonnen family on the planet Arrakis.
In a first look at “Dune: Part Two” posted to Vanity Fair earlier this month, Villeneuve revealed just Butler Fede-Rotha from behind. The director said he was waiting later at the film’s press tour to reveal Fede-Rotha’s face, but has now arrived online thanks to the teaser trailer. The first official trailer for “Dune: Part Two” will arrive on May 3, but a 44-second teaser clip debuted Butler’s shaved head as well as a new look for Florence Pugh’s Princess Erolan.
“He’s a Machiavellian, tougher and more strategic and more narcissistic,” Villeneuve told Vanity Fair of Fed-Rutha Butler.
The latter Villeneuve added “the skipper wants to be satisfied” about the differences between Harkonnen’s two nephews. “He wants to please the Baron. He wants to shine in front of his uncle, but something touches Rabban because he is a bad strategist. He is not very smart. Rabban finds himself, at the end of the first part, in a position where he does not have the brains to be able to manage and control all these processes.” Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is a very smart, very charismatic, and much more intelligent character.”
Bautista told USA Today earlier this year that Butler cast his “Elvis” voice to take on the “Dune” persona, adding, “I don’t know who that guy was, but he’s not Austin Butler. He’s not Elvis. His voice is different and he looks different. Every Something about his behavior is terrifying.”
Dune: Part Two is set for a theatrical release on November 3.