Robert Pattinson has come a long way from his Harry Potter and Twilight days, but he’s been returning to franchise films in a big way. The actor eschewed his teen idol image in the pursuit of indie cred, working with a wide array of filmmakers in projects both weird and wonderful. They may not have been major box office sensations, but they helped turn him into one of the most acclaimed and fascinating actors of his generation. But now there’s a world in which he can have it all.
Videos by ComicBook.com
This shift started with taking on the title role in The Batman, which he’ll be reprising for its sequel, but he’s also signed on for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three. As the follow-up to one of the best Sci-Fi movies in recent memory, there’s a lot of expectation on the movie, and Pattinson’s casting only adds to that. In a recent interview with IndieWire, when discussing his struggles with memorizing lines, the actor opened up just a bit about working on the next Dune sequel, saying:
“But now I’ve done like, 19 movies in a row, now my memory’s actually got a lot better. It’s actually really nice. When I was doing Dune it was so hot in the desert that I just couldn’t question anything. And it was so relaxing, like my brain actually wasn’t operating, I did not have a single functioning brain cell. And I was just listening to Denis [Villeneuve]: ‘Whatever you want!’”
Robert Pattinson’s Future Is Bright – And His Casting Is Great For Dune 3
Pattinson is expected to portray the character Scytale in Dune: Part Three: in the book Dune Messiah, which Villeneuve’s sequel will adapt, he’s a Face Dancer (a type of shapeshifter), which should allow the actor to have plenty of fun. He’s also a major villain of the story, meaning we should be seeing Pattinson go up against Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides. The Dune movies are already brilliant, and the returning cast is stacked, but seeing the Batman star being added to the mix only makes it more exciting, and his comments suggest it’s quite a freeing role for him.
That will cap off what’s going to be an exciting next couple of years for Pattinson. Black comedy-drama Die My Love, in which he stars alongside Jennifer Lawrence, will release on November 7th, and then on April 3rd he’s in the romantic drama titled, erm, The Drama, alongside his Dune 3 co-star Zendaya. They’ll also be in another of 2026’s biggest movies, as both have roles in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (July 17th, 2026). He’ll later return to the cape and cowl for The Batman: Part II, which releases on October 1st, 2027.
Still, it’s his role in Dune: Part Three that could be the best of the 2026 releases (especially as his Odyssey role will likely be fairly small). Again, Part Two was a masterpiece, so hopes are high for this one. Pattinson has previous form in Sci-Fi movies too, at least for his own performances: he was fantastic in all three of High Life, Tenet, and Mickey 17, his most recent entry in the genre, even if they were all a little divisive and none hit the box office heights that will be expected of the Dune sequel, so there’s a good chance that will be his biggest and best Sci-Fi movie to date.
Dune: Part Three releases on December 18th, 2026.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Stage 6 Films -
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm
