Austin Butler’s Dune 2 Villain Compared to Heath Ledger’s Joker (That’s How Good He Is)

Summary:

• Austin Butler embodied Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, a fierce villain and an antagonist to Chalamet's Paul Atreides, in Dune: Part Two.
• His performance gained laudatory reviews from impressed critics.

The Dune’s spectacular sequel is already out in theaters, introducing to us a new antagonist, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, who is portrayed by Austin Butler, known for his starring roles in Elvis ( 2022) and Masters of the Air series (2024).

His transformation and thrilling performance in a completely new character’s archetype has amazed critics and has already gained comparisons to Oscar-winning Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight and Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men.

Butler’s version of the House Harkonnen’s next successor, apart from his shaved head and eyebrows, required much mental power to embody a sociopathic and ferocious creature, urging to seize power.

Besides, he took the burden to compete with the character of Timothée Chalamet, Paul Atreides, which has already become one of the most iconic hero of the modern sci-fi, with whom Feyd-Rautha has a lot in common, but still has a huge responsibility to defend his own family’s throne.

Denis Villeneuve has assessed the level of Butler’s commitment to his role while filming the second chapter.

Recalling the actor’s eagerness to get the perfect version of Feyd-Rautha, he confessed in the recent Esquire interview that he “don’t remember having seen an actor having fun like that," expressing his admiration to his colleague.

Critics share the opinion that Feyd-Rautha is a completely different story from what Austin Butler did previously, calling his performance “a hairless embodiment of utter inhumanity.”

Despite the fact that the whole Dune cast comprises one of the best actors of today’s cinema industry (Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh, Charlotte Rampling and the above-mentioned Javier Bardem), it is pointed out Butler’s acting stands out as he managed to portray his villain impeccably.

Later, Butler met former Feyd-Rautha actor, Sting, who played him in David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation, at the Dune 2 premiere, as reported by the official Dune X-account.

Fans may remember the singer's rock-star daring metallic outfit, while Villeneuve and Butler’s shared vision of this character offers a "totally different thing."

You can check it out with your own eyes in theaters starting from today, March 1.

Source: Esquire, Empire