On the red carpet for Dune: Part Two, actress Anya Taylor-Joy made a surprise appearance, confirming long-running rumours that she was cast in the eagerly awaited film. Denis Villeneuve stated in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he purposefully chose to keep Taylor-Joy’s casting a secret until the very last minute. Villeneuve explained that it was an experiment to see how long the secret could be kept under wraps and to see how gossip-driven Hollywood nature.
The director said, “We did it. It was a special unit, we went to Africa to shoot with Anya under super-secrecy. I just loved the idea of keeping something a surprise for the audience until the very end; it was like a gift I wanted to keep for the fans.”
Despite Taylor-Joy’s part in Dune: Part Two being short, performing mostly as an uncredited cameo, her character’s relevance in Dune’s overall story will become clearer in future instalments.
Villeneuve has shown interest in making a film adaptation of Dune Messiah, the second book by Frank Herbert, which would give Taylor-Joy’s character a more important role. However, he stated that he was not in a rush to bring that project to life. He said to The Times of London, “There is absolutely a desire to have a third one, but I don’t want to rush it. The danger in Hollywood is that people get excited and only think about release dates, not quality.”