‘Dune: Part 2’ — Christopher Walken To Play Emperor Shaddam IV

Christopher Walken will play the Emperor in Dune: Part Two

Dune: Part Two has cast its Emperor of the Universe.

 

According to Deadline, Oscar-winning actor Christopher Walken has been cast as Emperor Shaddam IV in the upcoming sequel. Denis Villeneuve is back as writer, director, and producer. Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, and Stellan Skarsgård are also expected to be back. Filming will begin in the fall, targeting an October 2023 theatrical release.

 

The Emperor is the final of three major roles in the sequel that Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. have been casting for a couple of months. First, Florence Pugh was announced as Princess Irulan, the Emperor’s daughter. Her role in the movie will apparently be enlarged from hers in the original novel from 1965. Austin Butler (Elvis) was also cast as Feyd-Rautha, the nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and heir to the Harkonnen House.

 

Apparently, it took a bit longer to find the right actor for the Emperor, or at least, for us to find out about it. Walken can currently be seen in the Apple TV+ series Severance, but hasn’t had a film role since 2020. He won an Academy Award back in 1979 for The Deer Hunter, and was nominated again in 2002 for Catch Me If You Can. He’s been in some of the most iconic movies of all time, including True Romance or Pulp Fiction. He also voiced King Louie in 2016’s The Jungle Book.

 

Dune: Part One earned $400M worldwide despite being released day-and-date on HBO Max in the U.S. It also scored ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and was the big winner of the night with six statues, including Best Score for Hans Zimmer. The sequel was greenlit four days after the movie’s release in North America, even though the cast and crew had been publicly asking the studios to give it the go-ahead long before that.