Austin Butler Says His Dune Character Is The Real Hero

Austin Butler joins the cast of Dune: Part Two as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, a character he explains is the real hero of the story and not Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides.

By Scylar Gibby-Brown | Published 6 minutes ago

We’re getting closer to the long-awaited release date Dune: Part Two, the end of the ambitious two-part project that director Denis Villeneuve undertook to turn Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic into a film. In an interview to promote the sequel, Austin Butler, who plays antagonist Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Dune against Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, said he believes his character is the true hero of the story, according to ComicBook.com.

Fans of the classic literary masterpiece, Dune or the 2000 miniseries based on the book, will know that the sequel will cover roughly the second half of the novel, including some important conflicts that must occur if the series stays true to the source material. One of these conflicts involves the characters of Timothee Chalamet and Austin Butler facing each other in the Dune final. As with most stories, the script will likely be written so that the audience will root for the main character, Paul Atreides, however, Butler recently argued that he thinks his character is the right one.

While discussing the filming process, Austin Butler said that director Denis Villeneuve helped him Dune the actors immerse themselves in the “humanity” of their characters. Butler explained that process as “He feels like he’s the hero of his own story. And this can be a difficult thing with some characters; with others it’s easier, but you don’t have to judge character and you have to find a way to feel the motivation behind any of your actions.”

Austin Butler in his Dune character: “He feels like he’s the hero of his own story. And this can be a difficult thing with some characters; with others it’s easier, but you don’t have to judge character and you have to find a way to feel the motivation behind any of your actions.”

Butler said he had to set aside any judgment he felt about the character or his actions, and instead, he explored the motivation behind the actions. In the interview, Austin Butler explained that Dune the director, Villeneuve, helped him establish Harkonnen as a good guy, at least from a certain point of view.

Austin Butler wasn’t the first Dune movie, but will join a host of new actors coming in to help wrap up the epic. Along with Butler, the cast will be joined by Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux and Christopher Walken. Dune: Part Two we’ll also see the return of Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling and Javier Bardem, along with Timothee Chalamet.

Like most of this star-studded cast, Austin Butler has already achieved worldwide recognition for his acting prowess before Dune. Butler began his career as a child actor on Disney and Nickelodeon before moving on to teen dramas like The CW The unexpected life. He starred on Broadway in the 2018 revival The Iceman comesand it was at Quentin Tarantino’s house Once upon a time in Hollywood, in which he played Tex Watson. Butler starred as Elvis Presley in the 2022 biopic The King of Rock and Roll, for which he won an AACTA Award for Best Actor and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Austin Butler is exactly the type of actor who would be able to convince audiences that the bad guy in the Dune he’s actually a good guy. Stories that have complex characters who aren’t all good or all bad are the most compelling kinds of stories, and we’re excited to see how Butler pulls it off in Dune: Part Two.