Dune: Part Two gives great actors insultingly little screen time – but maybe that’s the key to its success
Has there ever been a cast as stacked as Dune: Part Two? The new sci-fi sequel has got to be up there with the starriest line-ups ever. Timothée Chalamet! Zendaya! Rebecca Ferguson! Javier Bardem! Léa Seydoux! Austin Butler! Florence Pugh! Christopher Walken! Stellan Skarsgård! Josh Brolin! Dave Bautista! Charlotte Rampling! Anya Taylor-Joy! It’s a cast list so freakishly deep that James Cameron’s thinking of piloting a submersible into it.
Inevitably, when you have that many big-name actors sharing just one film such as – there’s only so much limelight to go around. Chalamet, playing wronged messiah Paul Atreides, is certainly given plenty to do, as are Zendaya, playing his lover and fellow freedom fighter Chani, and Ferguson, playing his mother, the witchy Lady Jessica. Beyond these three, however, it becomes a matter of . In another film, the lack of screen time afforded to the rest of the cast would border on insulting. Here, though, it works perfectly.
