Anya Taylor-Joy joins cast of Dune: Part Two, and there's only person she could play

Back when Denis Villenueve's first Dune movie came out in 2021, it was notable not just for being an excellent adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi novel, or for looking gorgeous with state-of-the-art special effects, but for being packed with so many big-name actors you wonder how they had room in the parking lot to fit all their luxury trailers. I mean, this is nuts: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård and Dave Bautista all on one set? The mind boggles.

Dune: Part Two is coming out in a couple of weeks, and even more giant stars are joining the cast, including Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken and Austin Butler. And now, somehow, Variety reports that there was one big name the producers previously forgot to mention: Anya Taylor-Joy, of The Queen's Gambit and The Menu and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, is in the film. She showed up to the London premiere wearing some seriously memorable headwear:

Variety would only say that Taylor-Joy plays "a major character from the franchise" but wouldn't spill the specifics. Who could they be talking about? Beware SPOILERS ahead!

Who does Anya Taylor-Joy play in Dune: Part Two?

At this point, most of the principal characters from the Dune series are accounted for. Timothée Chalamet plays hero Paul Atreides, the scion of a noble house who becomes a messiah to the desert-dwelling Fremen people of the planet Arrakis, aka Dune. Zendaya is his Freman love interest Chani, Austin Butler his rival Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, Christopher Walken the emperor of the universe and Florence Pugh his daughter Princess Irulan. Who does that leave for Taylor-Joy?

We could be wrong, but keeping in mind Variety's language — she's playing "a major character from the franchise" — only one name comes to mind: Alia, Paul's little sister.

This might require some explaining, so strap in. Dune: Part Two will adapt the back half of Frank Herbert's original Dune book. In that novel, Paul's mother Lady Jessica is pregnant with Alia; the father is her husband Duke Leto Atreides, who died near the end of the first movie. But something weird happens to Jessica during her pregnancy; as part of a Fremen ritual to become a Reverend Mother, she imbibes the Water of Life, a distillation of spice that changes her body. As a result, Alia is pre-born, meaning she already achieves full consciousness in the womb, and as a baby basically has the mind of an adult.

It means a few other things too but we can leave it there for now. So Alia is a weird kid, if it's even accurate to call her a kid. She has the body of a kid, which might make you wonder how the 27-year-old Anya Taylor-Joy could play her. Well, it's possible that Taylor-Joy will only show up in a flash-forward towards the end of the movie, since Alia plays a big part in Dune Messiah, the next book in Herbert's series which Villenueve has said multiple times that he wants to adapt. Or maybe the movie will use special effects to shrink Taylor-Joy down or overlay her performance onto a child actor or something. That sounds very creepy, but young Alia is supposed to be very creepy, so it would fit.

Or maybe Taylor-Joy is playing an adult character we haven't thought of, but given that Variety said that her character is important to "the franchise," not just this movie, I think it's gotta be Alia. We'll see for ourselves when Dune: Part Two releases in theaters on March 1.

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