So, the part of the traitorous Suk Doctor, Wellington Yueh, is the latest to be filled. 42 year old Taiwanese actor Chang Chen will be selling out Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson et al in Dewnis Villeneuve’s upcoming film. Regrettably, I’m not that familiar with his body of work with the exception of 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in which he played the very memorable role of Dark Cloud. He’s been nominated for acting awards and had a couple of wins and is a greatly respected actor in China and beyond, having been a jury member at last year’s Cannes film festival. There isn’t that much written about him in English on the Internet, so I’ll have to hand it over to you to tell me anything more about him.

His casting gives further proof that the team behind the film are actually reading the book to get ideas about who the characters are before casting them. The character of Yueh has long been seen as being of Asian appearance but in neither adaptation has an Asian actor been selected to play him on screen.

The previous two incarnations have been Dean Stockwell in Lynch’s film, and a forgettable Robert Russell in the Sci-Fi miniseries version.

I have to say, this piece of news, whilst not having some of the pomp of previous announcements, is a great indication that this is going to be a film where attention to detail is great and where supporting players have just the same depth as the protagonist, just as it is in Herbert’s novel. I give this one another thumbs up. Can’t be long now until we find out who is going to play Feyd, Thufir and Shaddam IV.

You can check out my other casting reactions, along with my original picks, below.

Fantasy Casting – Dune

Casting Dune – David Dastmalchian initial reactions

Casting Dune – Jason Momoa initial reactions

Casting Dune – Josh Brolin initial reactions

Casting Dune – Javier Bardem initial reactions

Casting Dune- Zendaya initial reactions

Casting Dune – Oscar Isaac initial reactions

Casting Dune – Charlotte Rampling initial reactions

Casting Dune – Stellan Skarsgård initial reactions

Casting Dune – Dave Bautista initial reactions

Casting Dune – Rebecca Ferguson initial reactions

Casting Dune – Timothee Chalamet initial reactions

Thanks for reading,

Richard