Dune star Rebecca Ferguson confirms that Lady Jessica will return for Part 3, despite not appearing in the book: "I wasn't reckoning on it"

Dune: Part Two Lady Jessica — (Image credit: Alamy)

Rebecca Ferguson's Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, Lady Jessica, will appear in Dune: Part 3, despite the character's absence from Dune Messiah – the novel that Dune 3 is adapting.

Speaking exclusively to GamesRadar+ at a press event for the upcoming Netflix thriller A House of Dynamite, Ferguson confirmed that she has a small role in the surprisingly secretive project, which is currently in production. "Yeah! I am in it. Small. Dip in and out, because I'm not in the books. So I wasn't reckoning on it," Ferguson says. "Denis [Villeneuve] called me and was like, 'Why do I have a feeling you think you're not in the film?' And I was like, 'Because I'm not in the books?' And he was like, 'No, mate, I have a couple of scenes…'"

Lady Jessica is a central figure in Dune and Dune: Part Two. The mother of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), it's Jessica's decision to disobey Bene Gesserit edicts that leads directly to the dawn of the Kwisatz Haderach, the transformation of Arrakis, and the coming Holy War. In Dune: Part Two, Jessica assumes the mantle of Reverend Mother and is pregnant with Paul's sister, Alia – who will have a major role in Part 3, where she'll be played by Anya Taylor-Joy.

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Dune: Part 3 is currently in production under an impressive cloak of secrecy. It's long been rumored, for example, that Robert Pattinson is playing the film's main villain, the 'facedancer' Scytale, but there has yet to be any official announcement. Ferguson's involvement, too, has never been officially confirmed by studio Warner Bros. Lady Jessica's role in Dune 3 would appear to amount to little more than a scene or two, with Ferguson suggesting she shot for just a single day. But even still, Ferguson was glad not to miss out.

"Very rarely do I get any more FOMO," the actor says with a smile. "I quite often am relieved to not be involved in things. I'm the one who comes in and leaves fast. But I think [Dune] is the one… I walked onto set, and I saw [cinematographer] Linus Sandgren and Denis, and Timothée was there. And it just rings close. I knew I was going to leave the next day, so there was a sadness to it. But I also know that the film is epic."

If it sticks to the source text, Dune: Part 3 will take place some 12 years after the events of Dune: Part Two, and will see the return of Zendaya's Chani, Florence Pugh's Princess Irulan and, curiously, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho (or is he?) We won't go into specifics here, but check out our breakdown of what could happen in Dune: Part 3 according to the books, for potentially spoiler-ific details.

I'm the Managing Editor, Entertainment here at GamesRadar+, overseeing the site's film and TV coverage. In a previous life as a print dinosaur, I was the Deputy Editor of Total Film magazine, and the news editor at SFX magazine. Fun fact: two of my favourite films released on the same day - Blade Runner and The Thing.