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Dune 2 star calls Austin Butler's performance "chilling" – and we can't wait to see it

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By Emily Garbutt published 7 August 2023

Stephen McKinley Henderson has praised both his co-star's performance and his on-set behavior

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Austin Butler in Dune 2
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
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Dune: Part Two sees Austin Butler join the sci-fi franchise as Feyd-Rautha, a member of House Harkonnen and an enemy of Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides. And, according to his co-star Stephen McKinley Henderson, his performance as the upcoming movie's antagonist is "chilling" to watch.

"[Butler] played a character that was not very happy with me at all, and he was quite chilling, and I was giving him back the looks," McKinley Henderson told Purdue University's podcast, This is Purdue. "But when they say, 'Cut,' he would come over and say, 'Mr. Henderson, are you okay? Can I help you? Can I get you anything?' And he was just so nice. And then we'd go back to roll and he went, 'Ugh.' He was on my case. So I just so appreciated Austin, a wonderful, wonderful person."

Butler's character is the nephew and heir of Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and from our first glimpses of him in the film's trailer, it's clear that he's almost overwhelmingly bald and has also dropped his Memphis drawl that still remained after playing the King in Elvis. 

McKinley Henderson, meanwhile, is Thufir Hawat, the Master of Assassins for House Atreides in the first Dune movie who's then forced to work for House Harkonnen after they defeated the Atreides for control of the planet Arrakis. He's also a Mentat, someone in the Dune-iverse who are trained to mimic the cognitive and analytical ability of computers. 

Dune: Part Two is currently set to hit the big screen on November 3, but there's a chance it could be delayed. While we wait and see, check out our guide to the rest of the best upcoming movies on the horizon, in 2023 and beyond. 

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Emily Garbutt
Emily Garbutt
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Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related. I help bring you all the latest news, features, and reviews, as well as helming our Big Screen Spotlight column. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.

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