Timothée Chalamet Talks Going All Out for ‘Dune: Part Three’

Gizmodo · Feb 23, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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We haven’t seen anything from Dune: Part Three yet, but Timothée Chalamet wants everyone to know he’s giving it his all for the messianic threequel. At a recent Variety town hall in Austin, TX, he talked about not wanting to make his third turn as Paul Atreides count, since this would be “my last time doing a Dune film. I wanted to really treat it as sacred. People can get complacent, but I was more intense on the third one.” A big reason for that was how Oscar Isaac approached the material back when he played Paul’s father Leto in Dune: Part One. There, Isaac treated the film as “very Shakespearean,” and that’s inspired Chalamet to “take more liberty than ever.” “I was coming off of Beautiful Boy and Call Me by Your Name, movies that were a lot more naturalistic,” recalled Chalament. “So I felt kind of thrown by [Dune’s] futurism. But especially on this third one, all the great shit you see on screen is from freedom of movement and freedom of choice.” In terms of performance, he cited Heath Ledger in Dark Knight and Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now as further inspiration for where he’s taking Paul in this third chapter: those were two movies that let thier actors “sneak in something,” and something he wants to replicate here. Dune: Part Three is Chalamet’s third time working with Denis Villeneuve, and he said the two have built a “really good rhythm” while filming these movies. As a result, Part Three is a “big swing” and “the eeriest one” in the series. What exactly does that mean? We’ll find out when the film hits theaters on December 18. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.