casting

Forever Villain Stellan Skarsgård Will Be Dune’s Baron Harkonnen

Stellan Skarsgård. Photo: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for Universal Pictu

In a way, all Dune news is good news, because it means director Denis Villeneuve’s movie based on the notoriously difficult-to-adapt Frank Herbert novel is still happening. But today, we got some extra good news: Stellan Skarsgård has been cast as the villainous Baron Harkonnen, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In the 1984 David Lynch movie, the heaving, horrible Baron was originally played by Kenneth McMillan. He was constantly sweaty and covered in weeping sores and lusting after a man named Feyd (Sting, in a classic turn), and he is the nemesis of Paul Atreides, played here by Timothée Chalamet. The cast also includes Dave Bautista (who play the nephew of Harkonnen) and Rebecca Ferguson, and the story is about warring noble families and intergalactic conflict and religion and a universally coveted substance called “spice” and so much more.

Forever Villain Stellan Skarsgård Is Dune’s Baron Harkonnen