Timothée Chalamet Prepares Audiences for a Darker Paul in Dune 3
Paul Atreides will be the All-Powerful Dark Emperor of the Universe, Chalamet says.
If you’re not paying much attention, Dune and its sequel Dune: Part Two can seem like a typical hero’s journey tale. It follows Paul Atreides, a boy who comes with his father to the desert planet of Arrakis to find himself caught in the middle of an interplanetary coup, a religious uprising, centuries of manipulation by space nuns, and one lady’s decision to have a baby. By the time the dust storm settles, Paul has become Muad’Dib, the savior of the Fremen and galactic emperor.
Yet, attentive watchers and, especially readers of the novels by Frank Herbert, know that the Dune franchise regards Paul as just one more charismatic leader, unworthy of trust and given to destructive goals. Those viewers certainly include Paul’s actor Timothée Chalamet, who described his character’s role in Dune: Part Three to attendees at CinemaCon. “He’s become his worst vision,” he said (via EW) of Paul, a person still “trying to figure out how to still protect those who he loves in his life while becoming the all-powerful dark emperor of the universe.”
“All-Powerful Dark Emperor” is not what most moviegoers want from their heroes. One need only look at the enormous backlash Rian Johnson continues to get for saying that Luke Skywalker made some bad decisions in the years after Return of the Jedi. A weirdo like Alan Moore can turn Harry Potter‘s “Chosen One” arc into something stomach-churning for his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, but most people just want to see the local kid do good, to see the stableboy pull the sword from the stone and become a very good king, no questions asked.
But that’s never been Paul’s story, not even in Herbert’s telling. While he certainly doesn’t pin all the blame on Paul and, in fact, allows his protagonist to see that the Fremen jihad would happen regardless of his actions, Herbert never frames the character as a hero. Instead, he understands Paul as someone just as subject to the currents of history as everyone else. Further, the books’ most pointed criticism pokes at those who would deify those people, such as Princess Irulan and the hagiographies she presents as historical records.
Dune Messiah, the source material for Dune: Part Three made this point more strongly than any of Herbert’s other books. While later entries featured previously-killed characters and Paul’s very large sandworm son to act as villains and antagonists, Messiah took a smaller focus to show how his actions affected those around him. The story follows a conspiracy against Paul, one that involves the face-dancer Scytale (Robert Pattinson, hopefully as weird as possible) and that strikes out at Chani as well.
Despite the small stakes of Dune Messiah, Dune: Part Three promises to have a more epic scope, just by virtue of being a blockbuster trilogy. “It was just deeply moving to be part of a sci-fi trilogy on the scale of Lord of the Rings, but in a time when movie theaters and movies aren’t as naturally successful as they used to be, you know,” Chalemet added. “It’s a deep honor, if not the biggest one of my career, to be working with ‘The One,’ which is Denis Villeneuve, the real Paul Atreides.”
Wait, did Chalemet mean that as a compliment? Maybe he isn’t paying as much attention as we thought…
Dune: Part Three comes to theaters on December 18, 2026.