Dave Bautista, Drax from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and recently seen in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, has been signed up for the upcoming Dune films. I just saw this pop up on a couple of news websites. The details are a little vague but one of these reports says he is set to play the Baron’s nephew, Beast Rabban. His name hasn’t appeared on the IMDb listing yet and there isn’t any confirmation of that but he’s definitely signed on. It’s his birthday next Friday so this news should be a nice early present for him.
I think the character of Rabban is a good fit for the athlete turned actor from Washington DC. The only other part I could see him in would be Gurney Halleck but I think that should be someone older.
I’m very happy that he is attached to this project. He was one of my favourite things about the first Guardians film and he was very good in his brief role in Blade Runner 2049. His imposing physical presence would help make a great Rabban and I can see him really getting his teeth into the role and exhibiting that malicious glee that the character exhibits. He’s certainly a better pick for Rabban than my initial thought of Iwan Rheon, I think.
There aren’t any quotes from anyone that I can see about anything. I tweeted at him to say congratulations and see if he’d confirm that he’s Rabban. I’ll see if I get anything back. He’s got Ken Jeong’s backing too, which is nice.
Cheers for reading. I’ll keep the updates coming if I hear any more. I’m getting more and more excited about seeing my favourite book brought to the big screen. You can see my other casting reactions below.
Richard
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