People Are Freaking Out Over Austin Butler Being Bald As Feyd-Rautha In ‘Dune: Part Two’

The first time Hollywood turned Frank Herbert’s dense, dizzying Dune into a movie didn’t go so well (though it’s since become a cult item). But the Mulligan sure did. The masses went nuts for Denis Villeneuve’s trippy adaptation in late 2021, which did well enough that everyone (whose characters didn’t eat it, that is) regrouped to film the novel’s second half. The production even nabbed some good new gets, among them Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux, Christopher Walken, and recent first-time Oscar-nominee Austin Butler.

Speaking of, after the sequel’s trailer bowed at CinemaCon, Butler was one of the things people talked about. The ad hasn’t been made public yet, but it reportedly has some sandworm-riding, plenty of Zendaya, some war stuff.

Then there’s Butler. He plays Feud-Rautha, the sadistic other son of Stellan Skarsgard’s Baron Harkonen. In the 1984 version, which nearly destroyed the career of director David Lynch, that role was played by a grinning, orange-haired Sting. Butler’s take is a little different. For one thing, as per Gizmodo, he has “bright white skin and no hair.” He’s so pale that his scenes “look almost completely black and white.” That’s pretty different!

In real life, Butler has great hair, and he had great hair when he played the King in Elvis. When a new poster showing off a bald Butler went public, the public freaked out.

Dune: Part Two is due in theaters on November 3, almost two years after the first one bowed.