Robert Pattinson has played morally ambiguous roles before, but his next character may be his most disturbing one. In Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming ‘Dune: Part Three’, the actor steps into the role of Scytale, a mysterious and manipulative antagonist drawn from Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah.
And unlike a classic villain, this one does not plot in the shadows. He becomes them.
How Robert Pattinson’s Scytale Changes Everything For ‘Dune 3’
In Herbert’s Dune Messiah, Scytale is a Tleilaxu Face Dancer, a genetically engineered shapeshifter capable of perfectly mimicking other people. His talents are much more than physical disguise. He is a manipulator who uses psychology, faith, and fear to plot against Emperor Paul Atreides, portrayed by Timothée Chalamet, in a calculated move.
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Instead of engaging Paul in a battle of brute force, Scytale operates in a plot to overthrow his reign by acting inside the kingdom. His most outrageous plan is a disastrous effort to blind Paul with a nuclear weapon, which is part of a greater project of destroying the mythic aura of the emperor. His villainy is not based on chaos, but patience.
The most chilling part of Scytale is that he does not desire the limelight. He thrives in anonymity. He puts on and off various personas, researching the vulnerability of man and using it with scalpel-like precision. In a lot of ways, he is the greatest danger to a king, a person who realizes that even gods may be destroyed by skepticism.
To Pattinson, who has been juggling between brooding heroes and morally ambiguous characters in his career, Scytale is an opportunity to lose himself completely in something alien and calculating. It is not a mere villain role, but an erased performance.
Robert Pattinson On His ‘Dune’ Experience
In a previous interview, Pattinson claimed that shooting in the desert was weirdly liberating and that the heat was so intense that he was in a sort of hypnotic state, just doing what Villeneuve told him to do without thinking.
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It is a strangely appropriate rehearsal to portray a character whose whole life is around deception and surrendering identity.
As ‘Dune: Part Three’ brings the end of the epic trilogy by Villeneuve, Scytale will become a central figure in the fall of an emperor. With the film coming out in 2026, there is one thing that is certain: Paul Atreides may command armies and visions of the future, but he has never faced an enemy quite like this.
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