Movies - TV
Dune: Part Two Trailer Reveals Christopher Walken’s Emperor Of The Universe
By JEREMY MATHAI
The “Dune: Part Two” trailer reveals Christopher Walken in the highly anticipated role of Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV — and Walken’s take is surprisingly restrained.
The Emperor is the unseen but oft-referenced figure who set House Atreides and the villainous Harkonnens at odds with one another over control of planet Arrakis.
The 2021 “Dune” kept the political figurehead off-screen, instead choosing to have characters like Stellan Skarsgård's Baron Vladimir Harkonnen speak of the Emperor quietly.
The only background information on the Emperor came from a brief interlude set on the prison planet of Salusa Secundus, which housed the Emperor's elite army of Sardaukar soldiers.
The Emperor remains a major obstacle for Paul (Timothée Chalamet) in Paul’s fight for freedom, as he pits the strongest Houses under his rule against each other and provokes war.
Although Walken was great as the soft-spoken Burt in the Apple TV+ series “Severance,” audiences haven't seen him in a serious, restrained performance in a major film in a while.
The Emperor portrayed in the “Dune” novel has a sinister air of excess and indulgence, making Walken's outsized screen presence seem like a perfect match for the role.
However, the “Dune: Part Two” trailer shows the Emperor as a cunning and reserved man confronting Paul and quietly hissing dialogue like, “Your father ... was a weak man.”