Dune 3 star Robert Pattinson describes his shapeshifting villain Scytale as "unusual" and "interesting": "You can't really tell whose side he's on"

Robert Pattinson has teased what to expect from his Dune 3 villain Scytale – and he seems like he's going to be a slippery character.

"He's an unusual character in the book," Pattinson said at a Dune 3 trailer launch event. "I mean, you can't really tell whose side he's on, and it's kind of what makes him quite interesting."

In Frank Herbert's novel, Dune Messiah, Scytale is part of the Bene Tleilax, a mysterious sect of genetically altered humans with specialist skills in genetic engineering. This group is the reason why Jason Momoa's Duncan Idaho is back from the dead as they resurrect him as a ghola, which is a clone made from the cells of a corpse.

This is the most information Pattinson has given us so far about his role in the sci-fi prequel. Prior to this, in typical Pattinson fashion, he confirmed his involvement by saying that he "did not have a single functioning brain cell" while filming in the desert, but that's all we've had to go on.

Dune 3 will be set several years after Dune 2, so we can expect a time jump since the events of the last movie. "I am playing older. And also someone who's been impacted by years of leadership and carries that weight. It's different," Paul Atreides star Timothée Chalamet told GamesRadar+ last year.

The cast of Dune 3 also includes Zendaya as Paul's Fremen lover Chani, Florence Pugh as his wife Irulan, Rebecca Ferguson as his mother Lady Jessica, Anya Taylor-Joy as his sister Alia, and Javier Bardem as Fremen leader Stilgar.

Dune 3 arrives in theaters on December 18. While we wait, update your calendar with our list of the other biggest movie release dates in 2026.