Robert Pattinson could be heading to Arrakis, and not as a hero. Reports say the Batman star has been circling a “chief villain” role in Denis Villeneuve’s third Dune film, with multiple outlets pointing to Scytale as the character he’s being eyed to play.
The casting buzz first flared in early April 2025, when industry reporting indicated Pattinson was in talks for a major part in the threequel, expected to continue Paul Atreides’ story by adapting Frank Herbert’s Dune: Messiah. In the novel, Scytale is a shapeshifting adversary tied to the conspiracy aimed at undermining Paul’s rule, exactly the kind of “new blood” antagonist energy that would change the temperature of the franchise after Dune: Part Two’s rise-to-power ending.
Neither Legendary nor Pattinson’s reps publicly confirmed the role at the time of those initial reports, but by late 2025 Pattinson had begun speaking publicly about working on Dune: Part Three — including joking about how brutal the desert conditions were while filming. Even with that, the studio has kept his character specifics close to the vest in official messaging, so the safest framing remains: Pattinson is in the movie, and Scytale has been the most consistently reported role.
If the Scytale reports hold, it’s a smart bit of casting math. Pattinson thrives in characters who feel slightly “off,” controlled on the surface, volatile underneath, and Dune villains aren’t cartoon bad guys; they’re political operators and ideological threats. A Scytale-style antagonist would let Pattinson bring something quieter and more corrosive than the brute-force menace audiences got from Feyd-Rautha in Part Two.
Villeneuve’s third film is slated for a December 18, 2026 release date, with reporting in late 2025 indicating principal photography has wrapped and post-production is underway. Returning cast members are expected to include Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, and Jason Momoa, among others, as the saga pushes deeper into the consequences of Paul’s empire.
