Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two has cast its Emperor Shaddam IV with Christopher Walken who, thanks to a six-decade career, is both an established member of Hollywood royalty and a worthy actor for the role. In Dune, fans learned that the emperor is threatened by the resilience of House Atreides and is desperately trying to keep control of his empire and Arrakis's spice, presenting Walken with a complex and important role in the next chapter.
Walken has experienced a renaissance in the last five years thanks to leading roles in ensemble series like The Outlaws and Severance, which vacillate between broad comedy and touching drama in ways that highlight his versatility. Whether he's appearing in blockbusters with lots of special effects like Batman Returns, or horror fantasy movies like The Dead Zone, Walken always commands attention and cements the world-building, making him the perfect Emperor for Dune: Part Two.
Frank (The Outlaws)
Walken hasn't done much television work, which is surprising given how good his turn in The Outlaws is. As a former criminal doing community service in Bristol, he makes a discovery on the job that threatens everyone's chance to reform, eventually roping his fellow lawbreakers into one last shot at Johnny Law.
As a silver-tongued thief, Frank uses lies and charm to manipulate those around him, even if it's against their best interests. If Dune: Part Two features the Emperor's machinations with House Harkonnen and others, Walken will make it abundantly apparent why they fall in line.
Gabriel (The Prophecy)
If there's a genre that Walken seems ideally suited for, it's horror fantasy. The Prophecy makes great use of the actor's sinister presence as Gabriel, an archangel "who kills firstborn while their mamas watch." Desperate to pry an errant soul from a little girl's body, he must defeat a righteous cop and even go head to head with the devil himself in order to strengthen his powers.
Walken appeared in several Prophecy sequels, each time returning as a more vile version of Gabriel and chewing the scenery with his monologues about vengeance, hedonism, and human nature.
Hatcher (The Rundown)
As Hatcher in The Rundown, Walken proved that one of Dwayne Johnson's best co-stars could actually be the villain. Johnson's character interrupts Hatcher's treasure hunting quest in South America while searching for a mob boss's daughter, and rather than have the blockbuster descend into a typical brawl, the pair engage in a battle of wits, with Walken's presence elevating it into a fun game of cat and mouse with lines like, "Where you see Hell, I see a spellbinding sense of purpose."
Walken somehow isn't dwarfed by Johnson thanks to his undeniable screen presence and the fact that he's a threatening villain who's so unpredictable. Hatcher can send squadrons of mercenaries into battle with a rousing speech about a tooth fairy, turning a benign childhood memory into a twisted call for violence. That brand of calculated chaos could work very well for Dune's Emperor, especially when cornered, as he could be by Paul Atreides and the Fremen.
Frank White (King Of New York)
Whether it's because of his hooded eyes or his Queens upbringing, Walken has made a lot of movies playing heavies in crime dramas centered in New York City. In the appropriately titled King of New York, he plays a kingpin intent on restructuring his empire when he gets out of prison but finds the mean streets unwilling to believe in his new benevolent vision.
Much like the Emperor, Walken's Frank White wants to regain total control of the drug economy in his empire but faces a great deal of opposition from those he once considered allies. White views himself as a compassionate figure, much like Robin Hood (which is perhaps how the Emperor sees himself), until his loyalties are shattered with a series of double-crossings that force violent repercussions.
The Horseman (Sleepy Hollow)
As the Hessian Horseman on whose broad (headless) shoulders the Legend of Sleepy Hollow rests, Walken brings unparalleled charisma and depravity to Sleepy Hollow, considered Tim Burton's best movie in part because of Walken's performance. The role isn't a large one, but his character dominates the entire scope of the movie, which could also be the case for his Emperor in Dune: Part Two depending on Villeneuve's vision for the next chapter.
If the Emperor is mostly an ornamental role relegated to stage dressing, Walken will still be able to do a lot with it, as he proves in this grim and engrossing tale just by licking his fangs and swirling his cape. Chances are, though, Villeneuve won't make the mistake Burton did, and he'll give Walken some lines!
Captain Koons (Pulp Fiction)
If the Emperor doesn't have a lot of screen time and threatens to get swallowed by a sprawling cast, fans need to look no further than what Walken can do with a single scene as Captain Koons, one of the best supporting characters in Pulp Fiction.
A friend of one of the character's fathers, he delivers a hilarious yet restrained speech about a keepsake carried in an unconventional place through the war just to be placed in the boy's hands. Walken demonstrates the ability to be unwaveringly committed to even the most offbeat scripts and given the difficult dialogue in Dune, this could prove vitally important.
Max Zorin (A View To A Kill)
It seemed like only a matter of time before Walken was cast not simply as a villain but as a Bond villain, and in A View to a Kill, he became one of the most meta Bond villains, Max Zorin. Walken anchored what was to be one of the less popular Bond movies with an electrifying performance that seemed to poke fun at the spy's cohort of evil masterminds.
Even if the movie wasn't that well-received, Walken had some memorable Bond villain quirks that made it entertaining, like flying around in airships and reciting over-the-top dialogue containing the movie's own title. If the Emperor is meant to be a larger-than-life nemesis for House Atreides, the man behind Max Zorin will be "rather neat, don't you think?"
Max Shreck (Batman Returns)
Though he's only the secondary antagonist in Batman Returns, Walken's Max Shreck, a charming but greedy business mogul, steals many a scene from The Penguin and Catwoman in his effort to thwart Batman and make billions. With no special abilities, his "superpower" is identifying and exploiting people's greatest weaknesses.
With his shockingly white hair, dandified clothing, and charming mannerisms, fans might think he's too similar to Max Zorin, Walken's Bond villain, but it becomes very clear why Shreck holds Gotham hostage; he's managed to make the citizens love him (even as he's robbing them blind), an industrialist nightmare which could be a prototype of the Emperor.
King Louie (The Jungle Book)
Even amidst the star-studded cast lending their voices to Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, Walken's unmistakable cadence stands out, turning the king of the primates into more of a Gigantopithecus mob boss than the jovial orangutan from the original Disney cartoon.
In the 2016 remake, Walken makes King Louie both mysterious and playful, but make no mistake — he's a monarch on a mission, and when he sings "I Wan'na Be Like You", it's a threat, not a compliment. Fans curious about what an audience between the Emperor and Paul Atreides might look like need only look to the sequence King Louie shares with Mowgli about obtaining fire in the middle of his cavernous temple. Walken could portray the Emperor as an empathetic ally until the moment he turns on the young Mentat.
Johnny Smith (The Dead Zone)
As at home in science fiction, as he is in horror, Walken lends a beautifully haunted quality to The Dead Zone, David Cronenberg's unnerving movie about a man who wakes up years after a car accident with psychic abilities. Much like Paul Atreides, Johnny can see visions of the future, and when a certain political candidate's successful election threatens the state of humanity, he resolves to eliminate him.
Walken makes all of the psionic jargon in the movie believable, as well as the repercussions of his abilities when taken to their full extent. Cronenberg's works often act as visceral morality plays, and this one, in particular, focuses on fate, destiny, and free will, themes that are certainly inherent to Dune.