Glossu Rabban, played by Dave Bautista, is in a precarious place at the end of Dune: Part One—and when it came time to film Dune: Part Two, Bautista found a surprising motivation at the heart of Rabban’s character.
“I had not really talked to [director Denis Villeneuve] much other than, ‘Did you get the script? Did you like the script?’ Okay, I’ll see you in Budapest,'” Bautista told The Mary Sue when we sat down with him to talk about Dune: Part Two. “When I got there, I was in costume fittings, and they said Denis was coming over. So I saw him, and I hugged him, and I said, ‘Tell me about Rabban in this film. He’s so much more developed.’ And he said, ‘Well, let me dream about it tonight and I’ll tell you tomorrow.’ And I thought that was the best answer.”
At the end of Dune: Part One, Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) puts the belligerent Rabban in charge of Arrakis after the Harkonnens retake the planet from House Atreides. However, In Part Two, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and the Fremen are fighting back, while the fearsome Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) rises to power on the Harkonnen homeworld.
When Bautista and Villeneuve began to talk through Rabban’s role in Part Two, they hit on what’s driving Rabban as he fights to keep control of Arrakis.
“The next day, we started having conversations, and he said that at the root, Rabban is a coward. Remember that everything stems from that. So all of his rage and resentment and violence, it’s all coming from an insecure place.”
You can check out the full interview below!
Dune: Part Two, which hits theaters on March 1, 2024, continues the story of Paul Atreides [Chalamet] after the destruction of his family on Arrakis. Forging an alliance with the desert-dwelling Fremen, Paul strikes back against House Harkonnen. Dune: Part Two adapts the second half of Frank Herbert’s classic novel Dune, merging mysticism and science fiction to tell a powerful story of environmentalism and liberation.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
