Spoiler warning: This article covers plot points from Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah.
Duncan Idaho died the way you'd want your best friend to go. He planted himself between Paul, Jessica and a wall of Sardaukar and bought them time to vanish into the desert. No angle, no agenda, which in Herbert's universe makes him an endangered species.
Five years later, Jason Momoa is coming back, and this time the guy wearing Duncan's face might be the most dangerous person in the room.
Meanwhile, the kid Duncan died for grew up to be an Emperor whose holy war has burned through entire worlds. If Denis Villeneuve sticks to Dune Messiah, the third film will ask an ugly question. The people trying to overthrow Paul might have better reasons than the hero we've cheered for across two movies.
New interviews with Momoa, Robert Pattinson and Villeneuve suggest the director has no plans to blink.
Duncan Idaho Is Back, and Something's Wrong With Him
In an Empire interview published October 19, Momoa talked about returning as Hayt, a ghola. The Bene Tleilax, the creepiest biotech outfit in Herbert's universe, grow gholas from a dead person's cells. You get the original's body, and the Tleilaxu get to tinker with everything else.
Momoa admitted the role made him nervous. He signed up to play the loyal swordmaster and got a rewired copy. He also described a much colder dynamic with Timothée Chalamet's Paul, now an imposing ruler. The warm mentor-student vibe from the first movie looks gone.
If you've read Messiah, you know why Hayt should worry you. The Tleilaxu give him to Paul as a present because they know Paul can't turn away Duncan's face. Hayt is a Trojan horse with sad eyes, conditioned to turn on Paul when the right trigger hits. In the Imperium, dying doesn't even get you out of politics.
Robert Pattinson Wanted His Villain to Look Less Human
In a separate Empire interview published October 16, Pattinson said he pushed Villeneuve to make Scytale look less human. Villeneuve originally wanted a normal look so Scytale could blend in, then changed his mind shortly before filming.
The final design gives Pattinson pale skin, bleached hair and no eyebrows. He looks grown in a vat, and Pattinson loved it.
Scytale is a Tleilaxu Face Dancer, a genetically engineered shapeshifter who can wear anyone's face. A guy like that should look wrong.
Pattinson has also hinted that Scytale might have legitimate reasons for wanting Paul gone. Given what Paul has turned into, Pattinson has a point.
The Boy Who Saved Arrakis Conquered the Galaxy
The biggest transformation in Dune: Part Three belongs to Paul.
Villeneuve has said the film picks up seventeen years after Part Two, with Paul ruling an empire wrecked by war and religious fanaticism.
The first two films played like a textbook hero's journey with extra sand. Paul lost his father, fled into the desert and beat the empire that destroyed his family.
Villeneuve started poking holes in it before Part Two ended. Paul climbed to power through manipulation and a prophecy the Bene Gesserit planted among the Fremen, and his win kicked off a holy war. Chani saw it first. While the Fremen cheered their messiah, the woman who knew Paul best walked away.
Messiah follows that thread all the way down. In Herbert's novel, Paul's armies have killed an estimated 61 billion people. Paul lets it happen anyway, because his visions show him worse futures.
Is he a monster, or a tragic figure stuck with knowledge nobody else can see? Herbert never lets you get comfortable with either answer. The man who seems to hold the fate of billions is a prisoner of his own foresight.
Villeneuve hasn't confirmed that number made his script, but the premise puts Paul's body count front and center.
When the Villains Have a Point
Nobody in this story would win a humanitarian award. Scytale works for a civilization of professional manipulators. Hayt is a dead man with someone else's agenda installed. The Bene Gesserit still want to control humanity's bloodlines, and the great houses want their power back.
They're still trying to take down a ruler whose armies have caused suffering on a scale you can barely picture. You stop asking whether Paul survives his enemies and start asking whether he should.
That's where Hayt and Paul turn into mirror images. Somebody built one of them to serve other people's ambitions. The other got turned into a near-god, boxed in by prophecy and the expectations of billions of followers. Neither man gets to be free.
Can a Blockbuster Afford to Wreck Its Own Hero?
Hollywood rewards its heroes. Herbert plays by meaner rules. In Messiah, the victory is the disaster. Paul finds out that religious and political machinery is a lot easier to grab than to steer.
Herbert did this on purpose. In his introduction to Messiah, Brian Herbert says his father wrote it to tear down Paul's heroic myth and warn readers about charismatic leaders.
Warner Bros. and Legendary spent a fortune turning Dune into a prestige franchise, with Chalamet's Paul as its emotional anchor. Asking audiences to turn on him is a big gamble, and it may be what separates Dune: Part Three from the franchise assembly line.
The scariest thing in this movie may not be the lab-grown assassins or the worms under the sand. It may be realizing the galaxy's biggest monster is the guy everybody expected to save it.
Dune: Part Three hits theaters and IMAX on December 18, 2026.
What do you think? Should Villeneuve stay faithful to Messiah's brutal treatment of Paul, or will turning the hero into a tyrant alienate fans who loved the first two movies?