The future of the Dune movies are shrouded in a lot of secrecy, especially given the high anticipation for the now long-delayed Part Two. But at least one person at the heart of them is a little confused as to why, when you can get a pretty good gist of what’s to come by reading material that’s been out there for 70 years.
Speaking to MTV recently about his time on Wonka as well as the new arrivals in the cast of Dune: Part Two, Chalamet inadvertently confirmed at least one major return—not for Part Two, but the still-potential (but highly likely, should director Denis Villeneuve have his way) third movie in the series, adapting Dune: Messiah. Last chance for you to turn back if, like MTV host Josh Horowitz, you haven’t gotten around to reading that one yet!
Chalamet casually confirms that Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho—who perished in the first movie buying Paul and his mother time to escape House Harkonnen’s Sardaukar forces—won’t appear in Part Two, but will return for the third Dune movie. In Frank Herbert’s novel series, Duncan is reincarnated by the Bene Tleilax—masters of genetic engineering—as a “Ghola,” a clone first known as Hayt and sent by the Tleilax to try and assassinate Paul, only for the conflicting trauma of his conditioning and an innate loyalty to the Atreides unlocking his original memories as Idaho. Duncan gets reincarnated multiple times over across spans of thousands of years over the course of the remaining Dune books, re-accessing his memories each time until his final ghola retained both Idaho’s original memories and those of all his prior clones, and is established as a long-loyal advisor to Paul’s son, Leto II Atreides, and his line.
It’s a lot, which is why in part it’s very funny that Chalamet so casually acknowledges that Idaho will be back. But the actor, confronted with—in an age of social media PR and studio secrecy being what it is—the modern day nightmare of having inadvertently spoiled something, defending himself by pointing out the absurdity of it all.
“It’s so weird, because [the studios] are so secretive about the script, and about the trailer… well, [the books] have been out there for 70 years!”
Which is fair! But it’s also pretty fair to assume that the vast majority of people who saw Dune also haven’t read a series of incredibly wild follow-ups to what is actually nearly a 60-year-old book franchise, so as slight as it might be (Idaho’s return is far from the most outlandish thing someone could know from the events of Dune Messiah in advance), it still is going to be news to some people that Momoa will be back down the line, even if that point is quite far away for now.
A Duncan Idaho-less Dune: Part Two, meanwhile, will hit theaters March 1, 2024.
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