Everyone’s been waiting for Dune: Part Two to hit theaters since the moment Denis Villeneuve’s first half of adapting Frank Herbert’s classic novel concluded its screenings. It won’t be long on the 2024 movie schedule before we’re finally reunited with Timotheé Chalamet’s Paul Atredies and his quest into destiny. Which, naturally, leads to things like the internet having a funny take on one of the recent posters for this long-awaited sequel, and yes, the pattern of bald actors as villains is involved.
Before we get too far into the spice here, you need to see this Dune: Part Two poster. Shared on Warner Bros. Pictures' social media pages, one of the many posters hyping up this new arrival have been showing off characters familiar and fresh, in classic floating head fashion. But see if you can notice something specific in this one-sheet in particular:
Destiny arrives. #DuneMovie only in theaters March 1. pic.twitter.com/Kfp18ljCw9January 24, 2024
If you guessed the bald villain corner formation of Austin Butler, Stellan Skarsgård and Dave Bautista, you’re correct! This Dune’s sequel tease has commenters shining up their best comments highlighting the members of Dune: Part Two’s cast that make up the Harkonnen bloodline.
Journalist Jeff Snieder, known through social media as “The InSnieder,” opened a pretty interesting can of sandworms by retweeting that poster with a photo of the one-sheet for Being John Malkovich and asking this question:
Has there ever been three bald men on a movie poster before? I can only think of one…
Of course, just the mere mention of Sandworms has me thinking about the other meme-worthy happening surrounding this movie: Dune: Part Two’s scandalous popcorn bucket. However, things don’t get to that point with the comments we’ve collected here. Though user “illjoy_” does have an interesting point to raise, in the midst of the bald mania:
It’s funny that they made all the Harkonnens bald in the dune movies despite that not being the case at all in the book.
So remember how actor Austin Butler’s concern about his Elvis accent had fans worried? Well, apparently his recent remarks about hiring a vocal coach to lose that affectation is now fair game in the world of Dune: Part Two. Poster “whomsttryna” used that unique spin to provide this gem of comedy in our current hairless moment:
...he hires a hair coach after dune 2 to teach him how to not be bald anymore.
Closing us out with a rather interesting viewpoint on Dune: Part Two's gleaming poster concerns is X user "princeinve." Now while I want to say this is a gag on their part, what you're about to read kind of falls under the former rules that applied to mega-villains like Blofeld in the James Bond movies. Keeping that in mind, here's what they had to say:
Dune isn’t afraid to show that bald guys are always villains. Maybe I will watch the sequel
Bald jokes aside, now feels like a good time to break out that Netflix subscription or Max subscription. At the time of this writing, those are the streaming services you can go to refresh your Dune knowledge. To be honest, you're probably going to be noticing just how much hair is present among the cast of this first movie now that the jokes surrounding the bald legion of doom have been flying. So don't hold us responsible for any uncontrollable laughter that may arise out of nowhere, as we're only highlighting these jokes.
Dune: Part Two will spice things up at a theater near you starting on March 1st. However, if you want to get a taste of what’s coming down the road a little earlier than expected, the IMAX re-release of Tenet happening at the end of February will include some footage from the return to Arrakis. Pay close attention to which theater you book your tickets for while you’re at it!
If you have tickets for the IMAX 70mm revival of Christopher Nolan’s time-bending adventure, that same theater is probably going to have that same format available for Dune: Part Two’s release as well. Of course, with that information in the wild, tickets will probably be hair today, but gone tomorrow, so don’t wait to book!
