From the loathsome Antinous in The Odyssey to the controversial real-life reality show host Chris Hansen in Primetime, we've been living through a watershed year for rivetingly weird and compelling performances from actor Robert Pattinson. Yet the former Twilight star's strangest turn may be yet to come in Dune: Part Three, where he'll play the scheming Scytale in the final film of director Denis Villeneuve's Dune trilogy.
We've seen plenty of footage of Scytale in the trailers for Dune: Part Three, but they reveal little about him. Who is this new character, who seems such a far cry from the vicious physicality of the franchise's previous villains, the Harkonnens?
While Denis Villeneuve and Pattinson may be keeping things quiet about Scytale's full motivations and capabilities, there's quite a bit to be gleaned from Frank Herbert's novel Dune Messiah, which serves as the source material for the film. Mild spoilers beyond from the book beyond this point.
What are Scytale's powers in Dune?
Unlike Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler), Scytale's strengths lie far from the battlefield. He is a member of a people called the Tleilaxu, or Bene Tleilax, a reclusive society that specializes in gene modification. For Scytale in particular, this manifests in his abilities as a Face Dancer. In short, he's able to manipulate his appearance at will, growing larger or smaller, deepening or softening his voice, and changing his hair length or color, just for a start.
In Dune Messiah, Scytale is key player in a conspiracy to assassinate and overthrow Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). To that end, he creates a ghola — a cloned human grown from the cells of someone recently deceased — specifically designed to mess with Paul. Yes, I'm talking about Jason Momoa's Duncan Idaho, who returns in Dune: Part Three with the name Hayt. He owes his existence to Scytale and the other Bene Tleilax.
All this makes Scytale an incredibly formidable opponent who is capable of getting behind enemy lines by blending in, manipulating Fremen and anyone else caught in his path. We haven't seen him change shape in any significant way in the trailers, but the key art above hints that Villeneuve has kept this crucial part of Scytale's character intact. I'm expecting at least one or two scenes where we don't realize it's him interacting with other characters, only to have the rug pulled out from under us.
The Bene Tleilax leave their prey an unusual chance for escape
One other important aspect to understand about Scytale, and the Bene Tleilax as a whole, is that they are not inherently evil. By the point of Dune: Part Three, Paul Atreides has reigned terror on the known universe for almost two decades, snuffing out tens of billions of lives in the process. The fact that Paul's holy war wrought such widespread destruction gives those opposing it a decidedly different flavor as villains compared to Baron Harkonnen and his family, who were out for power and took sadistic pleasure in violence.
This extends so far that the Bene Tleilax actually have a shockingly honorable outlook on assassinations, which are something they've dealt with in the past thanks to their unique Face Dancing abilities. When the Tleilaxu set a trap for someone, they have an ironclad moral code which dictates that they have to leave their target with one way out. While that may sound almost cartoonish, in that way that villains so often allow their heroes a road to escape, Herbert's work with the Tleilaxu makes it a much more sophisticated aspect of their culture. Often, the way to escape the trap is so fraught that it will take a gargantuan, life-changing effort — if the target is able to muster that kind of resistance at all.
Paul Atreides is a singular person in the Dune universe, so it stands to reason that he may have some hope. However, I wouldn't bank too hard on it. Whether Paul can defeat Scytale, or the Face Dancer's machinations bring down the burgeoning Atreides empire, the story of Paul Atreides' rise will reach a resounding conclusion in Dune: Part Three.
Dune: Part Three premieres in theaters on December 18, 2026.
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