Rebecca Ferguson's Dune 3 Spoiler Will Disappoint Her Fans

On December 18, 2026, "Avengers: Doomsday" will debut alongside "Dune: Part Three" in what is sure to be a cinematic showdown for the ages. "Dunesday" will be upon us. As such, fans are surely already planning their double-feature day at the multiplex, and while absolutely nothing could dull the excitement for such a historic cultural event, many of those fans will likely be disappointed to learn that Rebecca Ferguson won't be a major part of it. The actor, who played Lady Jessica in "Dune" and "Dune: Part Two," has revealed that she's barely in the upcoming threequel and that, initially, she wasn't even supposed to be in it at all.

With the first two films in the franchise, director Denis Villeneuve proved wrong the hoary old claim that Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel was "unfilmable." Both "Dune" and its sequel were big box office hits that reintroduced the saga of Paul Atreides and the planet Arrakis to a new generation. For the third installment, Villeneuve and his co-writer Jon Spaihts are adapting Herbert's 1969 novel "Dune Messiah," and it turns out the pair's vision for this installment doesn't actually feature a whole lot of Lady Jessica.

During an appearance on Happy Sad Confused, Ferguson was asked to compare her experience on the first two movies with her experience on the third. But as the actor revealed, there wasn't really much to compare when it came to the third installment. "I've just dipped my toe in," she said. "I have literally no sort of comments on it. The script is great. I've read it. I think it's going to be fantastic. But my journey was number one and two."

In "Dune" and "Dune: Part Two," Rebecca Ferguson played Lady Jessica, mother of Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides. The films saw the duo escape a brutal attack on their home by the House Harkonnen and flee into the desert, where Paul is welcomed as a messianic figure by the Fremen. With Lady Jessica's help, he rises to power and decimates the Harkonnens before launching a full-scale holy war. Throughout this time, Lady Jessica remained pregnant with a daughter, Alia (played by Anya Taylor-Joy in a cameo in "Dune: Part Two"). If you thought you were going to see much mother-daughter bonding in "Dune: Part Three," however, think again.

If the "Dune Messiah" novel is anything to go by, the third film will be set 12 years after the events of "Dune: Part Two." It seems that in that time, Lady Jessica will have somewhat faded into the background, at least in Denis Villeneuve's version of events. As Ferguson put it during her Happy Sad Confused appearance, "I don't even think [Lady Jessica] was supposed to be in ['Dune: Part Three'] and then Denis was like, 'I need to have one scene.' And I get one scene."

The actor didn't reveal what that scene entailed or much more about her involvement, but it seems it was about as minimal as it gets. "That was a weird feeling," continued Ferguson, "walking onto a set that you know so well and knowing that you don't have a part of it. It's sort of, there's a lot of FOMO, and the acceptance of this is just what it is." 

"Dune: Part 3" has at least added everybody's favorite freaky little weirdo actor, Robert Pattinson, who'll be playing Tleilaxu Face Dancer, Scytale, if it's any consolation.