Elvis no more, Austin Butler is undergoing a new kind of transformation in his next major film role.
On Tuesday, Dune fans got their first glimpse at Butler, 31, in character as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in the upcoming sequel Dune: Part Two when the movie’s official social media accounts released footage from the film ahead of its trailer debut.
In addition to showcasing heart-pounding footage of a figure placing a device in the sands of Arrakis to call one of its gigantic sand worms, footage from the film shared on Twitter Tuesday teased glimpses at each of the movie’s lead characters.
The teaser video showcased Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista in the new movie, ending with a glimpse at Butler sporting a shaved head and eyebrows in his new villain role.
“Austin Butler brought to the screen something that would be a cross between a psychotic, sociopath serial killer and Mick Jagger,” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve recently told Vanity Fair of Butler’s performance in the movie.
In Dune: Part Two, Butler plays Feyd-Rautha, a member of the Harkonnen clan that killed Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) and destroyed protagonist Paul’s house on Arrakis.
“He’s someone Machiavellian, much more cruel, much more strategic, and is more narcissistic,” Villeneuve told Vanity Fair of the character, during a larger preview of the upcoming science fiction epic.
Feyd-Rautha is a nephew of the Baron, the Harkonnen family leader portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård in 2021’s Dune, and younger brother to Bautista’s character Rabban.
Villeneuve recently told Vanity Fair that Feyd-Rautha is characterized as “a very clever, very charismatic figure” in comparison to Rabban, whom the director described as “not very intelligent.”
“He wants to shine in front of his uncle, but there’s something touching about Rabban because he’s a bad strategist,” the filmmaker told Vanity Fair of the relationship between the two characters. “He’s not very intelligent. Rabban finds himself, at the end of part one, in the position where he doesn’t have the brain to be able to manage and control all these operations.”
“Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is a very clever, very charismatic figure, and much more brilliant,” he added of Butler’s character.
Feyd-Rautha was notably previously portrayed by The Police singer/bassist Sting in David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Dune. Matt Keeslar also took a turn portraying the character in the Sci Fi channel’s 2000 miniseries adaptation Frank Herbert’s Dune.
Footage from Dune that premiered on Tuesday did not include Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam IV or Léa Seydoux, who is expected to appear in the sequel as Lady Margot. A full trailer for the upcoming movie from director Denis Villeneuve is expected to release Wednesday.