How Jason Momoa could still show up in the Dune sequels

CAUTION: This post contains SPOILERS for Dune: Part One…and beyond!

Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction book, is officially a hit, so much so that Warner Bros. gave the go-ahead to make a sequel, which is good, because the first movie only adapts the first half of Herbert’s book.

Dune: Part Two will see much of the cast reunited, including Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Zendaya as Chani, Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and more.

But one guy who won’t be returning is Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, the swordmaster of House Atreides. Cause if you watched the first movie you know that (last chance to avoid spoilers) that he dies towards the end protecting Paul and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) from Sardaukar soldiers.

But as it ends up, that’s not the end of the story. Between the pages of Frank Herbert’s Dune books, death is only the beginning for Duncan Idaho…

How Duncan Idaho returns in Dune Messiah

So it’s true that Idaho won’t show up in Dune: Part Two, unless director Denis Villeneuve does something really unexpected. That movie will adapt the second half of Dune, and Duncan is nowhere to be found there.

However, Villeneuve has expressed interest in adapting not only the whole of Dune, but also its sequel Dune Messiah, which is set after Paul and his army of Fremen overcome the emperor and carry out a frightful jihad on the galaxy. And in this book where Duncan Idaho makes his return.

But Duncan Idaho died, you say. How could he come back? That where the Tleilaxu come in. The Tleilaxu people are a major power in the imperium, although they don’t come into the story of the first Dune book much. They are experts in genetic manipulations, able to create artificial organs and even copies of people, which they call gholas. Grown in axlotl tanks from genetic material retrieved from the cells of a deceased subject, gholas resemble the original person in every way, but beware that the Tleilaxu didn’t change some things in their genetic code that make them act differently than expected.

In Dune Messiah, the Tleilaxu present Paul — who is now the ruler of the galaxy — with a gift: a ghola modeled after Duncan Idaho. It’s all part of an elaborate plan to control Paul. Paul knows this, but he can’t help himself from keeping the ghola around. How often do you get a chance to reconnect with your dead friend?

Villeneuve’s first Dune movie really underlined the connection between Paul and Duncan, which will help sell the reunion in Dune Messiah. Villeneuve has said he wouldn’t want to adapt any of the Dune books beyond that, but if he changes his mind, things just get weirder from there…

Duncan Idaho is the only character to appear in every mainline Dune book

The next book after Dune Messiah is Children of Dune, set not long after the events of Messiah. The Duncan Idaho ghola from Messiah is still around and is an important character. After that we get to God Emperor of Dune, which is set thousands of years later, long into the reign of Paul’s son Leto II Atreides, who over the millennia has turned into an enormous half-worm/half-man creature. Leto II has taken to having the Tleilaxu clone Duncan over and over and over again, with the latest clone being instrumental to his final downfall.

The next book, Heretics of Dune, is set another thousand years and change into the future. Leto II is gone, but the Tleilaxu are still making Duncan Idaho clones, including one who gets involved in a conflict between the Bene Gesserit and a new group called the Honored Matres. This same Duncan appears in Chapterhouse: Dune, which is the final Dune book Frank Herbert wrote before his death; this one is set immediately after Heretics.

So as you can see, not only could Duncan Idaho return in a Dune sequel, but he could feature in more Dune movies than any of his costars, depending on how much of the series gets adapted. Jason Momoa could be playing this character for years to come!

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