Josh Brolin is making sure people know he’s in Dune: Part II

Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s gorgeous adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic, landed in theaters last year, and immediately became a hit. Warner Bros. wants to create a Dune cinematic universe complete with TV spinoffs, but I’ll be more than happy if Villeneuve and crew just continue to tell Herbert’s original story, provided they tell it with as much vision and punch as in the first movie.

And indeed, Dune: Part II is due out in the fall of 2023, and will reunite those cast members whose characters were still living at the end of Part I. That includes Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), the House Atreides swordmaster. He was last seen charging a cadre of Harkonnen soldiers, so moviegoers could be forgiven for thinking he might not return, but those who have read the book know he has a long arc ahead of him.

Still, rumors of his demise have been so loud that Brolin himself set about to correct them. “I am a part of Dune: Part Two, to the ridiculous extent of when somebody mentioned to me that it wasn’t on IMDb, I actually went out of my way to call [my publicist] Liz and say, ‘Can you please put that on IMDb?’ Because it’s a proud moment for me, man,” the actor told Collider.

Josh Brolin is getting into shape for Dune: Part II

In fact, Brolin will have rather a lot to do in the sequel, much of which will involve fight scenes. “Javier [Bardem, who plays the Fremen leader Stilgar] and I had a similar thing that we both admitted to each other at the Oscars, because we both have a little bit of paunch right now,” Brolin said. “And we talked to Denis. We hadn’t read anything, and we talked to Denis the week before. He was like, ‘You guys are fighting the whole time. And you’ve been in the desert with the Fremen and all that.’ And we fucking panicked. We looked down and saw this little friend that we’ve been holding on our abdomen. So we were both on full diet mode at the Oscars, even though you absolutely couldn’t tell. We were already in diet mode, in panic diet mode.”

Speaking of the Oscars, there was some controversy when it came out that Villeneuve wasn’t nominated for a Best Director Oscar for Dune, despite the movie being nominated for Best Picture and his work clearly being worthy. Brolin was especially flabbergasted:

"It’s the most asinine, bizarre … I mean, that’s why snubs are such a thing and that’s why we all talk about them, but that’s a snub, of a snub, of a snub that I just thought was an impossibility. But given everything about the Academy Awards, there are many impossibilities that actually materialized. So it’s all part of the game right now. I don’t know. Is it post-pandemic mentality? Whatever it is, I don’t understand it. He helmed the whole thing. It’s his creation. It’s his interpretation."

Honestly, everything at that Oscar ceremony was so overshadowed by The Slap I don’t know if it’s even worth talking about. They can always try again with Part II.

Dune: Part II is scheduled to come out in theaters on October 20, 2023.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels