Take a good look at the above photo. Because you’re not seeing that much more of Rebecca Ferguson in Dune: Part Three.
The actress, who plays Paul Atreides’ Bene Gesserit mother Lady Jessica in the saga, says she only has a single scene in the highly anticipated sequel.
One scene, by the way, is still more than the character has in Frank Herbert’s second Dune novel, Dune Messiah, which the third movie is loosely based upon. But based on the teaser trailer that was released on Tuesday, director Denis Villeneuve has apparently made plenty of (wise) adaptive changes to a rather introspective novel that’s long been considered challenging to adapt for the screen.
“I just dipped my toe in,” she told the Happy Sad Confused podcast in an episode that dropped Tuesday. “I don’t even think she was supposed to be in three. And then Denis was like, ‘[You] need to have one scene.’ And I get one scene. But that was a weird feeling, walking onto a set that you know so well and knowing you don’t have a part of it. There’s a lot of FOMO and the acceptance of this is just what it is. You just have to serve.”
“The script is great,” she added. “I think it’s going to be fantastic… but my journey was number one and two.”
The Oscar-nominated filmmaker told reporters yesterday that the movie takes place 17 years after Dune: Part Two.
“It’s a very different movie than the first ones,” he said. “If the first movie was contemplation, a boy exploring a new world, and the second one is a war movie, this one is a thriller. It is action-packed and tense. More muscular. We see Paul dealing with the consequences of having too much power.” The movie follows people trying to overthrow him, but “the heartbeat of the film is still the relationship between Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and Chani (Zendaya).”
Ferguson currently stars in Netflix’s Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which is released on the streaming service on Friday, and the upcoming third season of Apple TV+’s Silo.
Though the film also introduces Robert Pattinson as a new character, Scytale, who is a fan favorite from the books. “I wouldn’t say he’s a conventional bad guy, as such,” The Batman actor told reporters. “He might even be a good guy. Who knows! I will also find out, when I see the movie.”
The director has previously said Part Three will be his final Dune film and that he doesn’t see the three films as a trilogy, exactly. “It’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” Villeneuve said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.”
The film also stars Josh Brolin, Florence Pugh and Anya Taylor-Joy, who reprise their roles from the second film. Jason Momoa reprises his role from the first film after his character was seemingly killed off (somehow, Duncan Idaho returned…).
The previous Dune films have collectively made $1.1 billion at the box office worldwide and Part Three will hit theaters Dec. 18, 2026.
— Aaron Couch contributed to this report
