In Frank Herbert’s original story, Thufir survives the attack but is forced to change sides and work for his captors, filling the role left vacant by the Mentat Piter de Vries (David Dastmalchian), who dies after being poisoned by Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) in his final bite back at the enemy. In his new gig under House Harkonnen, Thufir attempts to break the opposition from the inside out, even going as far as playing Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) against his uncle, the Baron (Stellan Skarsgård). It’s this encounter that may have been what Henderson’s scenes consisted of, given that the star spoke of working with Butler on the project on the podcast “This Is Purdue.”
“[‘Dune’ has] such a great international cast,” Henderson began, “but what I had the most fun with this last time was working with Austin Butler.” While Butler’s performance as Paul’s knife-wielding foe has chilled audiences to the bone, Henderson had nothing but praise for his co-star: “He’s just the nicest guy, and he and Timmy [Chalamet are] both just wonderful people, and they play such nemesis [sic] in the film, so it was wonderful to see them off camera.” It’s a shame that we’ll never get to see Henderson in “Dune: Part Two,” but if his kind words about the Feyd-Rautha actor have made you eager to learn more about him, you may be interested in the unspoken truth of Austin Butler.
