Dune 3 Casting Raises Huge Questions for the Future of the Franchise

This article contains spoilers for the Dune franchise.

By this point, even the average moviegoer knows that the Dune franchise is weird. But devotees of Frank Herbert‘s sci-fi novels have been warning civilians for years that things are going to get so much weirder, starting with director Denis Villeneuve‘s next movie, an adaptation of the second book, Dune Messiah.

Messiah depicts a conspiracy against Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), which involves clones and fish-men. Furthermore, Messiah introduces Paul and Chani’s (Zendaya) twin children Leto II and Ghanima, one of whom becomes an immortal human-sandworm hybrid. Somehow, though, Villeneuve has managed to make things even stranger with its casting of the children. Indeed, news broke this week courtesy of Deadline that Nakoa-Wolf Momoa will play Leto II and Ida Brooke will play Ghanima. If that first actor’s name stands out, that’s because it should. He is the son of Jason Momoa… which raises some big questions for Villeneuve’s vision for the franchise.

To explain why it’s an issue, we need to get into book spoilers here. So if you haven’t read Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, or God Emperor of Dune, proceed with caution.

Even though Mamoa’s Duncan Idaho died in the first movie, allowing Paul and Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) to escape from the Sardaukar, he’s far from gone. In fact, Duncan will be revived in Dune Messiah as a clone (or ghola) called Hayt. Trained as a mentat (human computer) and largely devoid of his past memories (at least at first), Hayt is sent to serve as an advisor to Paul as part of the conspiracy against him, making the two old friends’ relationship one of the story’s major conflicts. That conflict intensifies when Paul’s sister Alia (Anya Taylor-Joy) becomes attracted to Hayt, further muddying his allegiances.

Many also know about Leto II’s fate. At the end of Children of Dune, Leto II merges with a school of sandtrout (sandworms in their larval state), which turns him into a human-sandworm hybrid. The condition strips Leto II of his humanity, but it makes him immortal and heightens his prescience, which he uses to continue his father’s work and put humanity on a rigid Golden Path.

So when the fourth book God Emperor of Dune opens, 3500 years have elapsed since Children of Dune (which itself takes place 21 years after the events of Dune), and Leto II remains in power. Dubbed “the Tyrant” or “the Worm,” Leto II is hated by large portions of humanity, including the many rebels who unsuccessfully try to depose him. Although Leto II has shorn most of his humanity, he retains one connection through his relationship with Duncan Idaho. He regularly commissions new gholas of Duncan, who initially befriend him and eventually turn against him, setting off a cycle that continues until Leto’s death.

Given the importance of Duncan to Leto II, the fact that the two characters will be played by father and son seems significant. The casting could simply work to enforce the importance of Duncan to Leto, allowing the audience to sense a relationship without relying on dialogue.

However, the casting might also point to a more complex diversion from Herbert’s plot. In the novel Dune Messiah, Chani and Paul struggle to sire children because Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh)—whom Paul married at the end of Dune as a political strategy, but not from any form of love or affection—is poisoning Chani’s food at the behest of the conspiracy. The poison ceases to work when Chani begins following her native Freman methods, leading to the birth of Leto II and Ghanima.

Chani remains a more or less constant companion to Paul throughout the first two Dune novels, but Villeneuve threw a wrinkle in that plot with his adaptations. At the end of Dune: Part II, Chani storms away from Paul at the moment of his ascension to emperor, suggesting that she already senses the violent leader he will become. Presumably, the two will come together again in Villeneuve’s Dune III, but it’s hard to believe there won’t be more tensions in the movie than exist in the book.

Will Villeneuve address the division between Chani and Paul by translating the romance between Hayt and Alia to Hayt and Chani? Could Leto II actually be the son of Duncan Idaho instead of Paul Atreides, adding a level of intrigue to his attempts to follow his father’s plan?

Of course this is all speculation at this point. And it might simply be that Nakoa-Wolf Momoa matched what Villeneuve saw in his head while reading the Dune books, so he cast the newcomer with no regard to familial connections. But Villeneuve has already shown a willingness to play with Herbert’s novel and find new points of conflict. It’s hard to believe that he doesn’t have something in mind for the father and son’s onscreen appearances.

Dune: Messiah is slated to start filming in 2026.