The year’s best cast just got even better. After reports started circulating online, Variety has confirmed that Anya Taylor-Joy appears in Dune: Part Two. She will join Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem, all of whom are returning from the first film, as well as franchise newcomers Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Léa Seydoux. I hope Oscar Isaac doesn’t feel left out.
Who is Taylor-Joy playing Variety kept it a secret, but — SPOILER ALERT FOR DUNE: PART TWO — the rumor is that she was cast as Alia Atreides, the powerful younger sister of Paul (Chalamet).
In author Frank Herbert’s Dune books, she “becomes conscious of the world while still in the womb and is born with the knowledge of her ancestors,” according to the Mary Sue. “As a toddler, she can speak and reason just like an adult. Many of the Fremen find her unnerving and strange. Even worse, the Bene Gesserit considers her an abomination that should be terminated.”
Needless to say, she won’t be a toddler in Dune: Part Two if she’s being played by Taylor-Joy. Maybe this is part of the set up for a third film, Dune: Messiah We’ll find out on March 1 when Dune: Part Two hits theaters.