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Paul Atreides is a hero, says Kyle MacLachlan - just maybe not for the reasons Dune fans argue about
David Lynch's Paul Atreides loves the Dune lead, but *maybe* not as the messianic figure Frank Herbert was wrestling with his later works
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Is Paul Atreides a hero?
That's a bit of a hot-button topic among the Dune fanbase, and if Denis Villeneuve follows the novel that inspired Dune: Part Three - Dune: Messiah - it's going to be a key theme of the next film. So as you can imagine, when I got the chance to speak with someone with a deep understanding of the character - Kyle MacLachlan, who played Paul in the 1984 David Lynch-directed adaptation of Frank Herbert's scifi novel, to be specifc - I had to ask him that exact question.
"Of course he's a hero," MacLachlan told me. I could hear Reddit erupt.
Let's back up a bit. The conversation between the Twin Peaks actor and myself went down at Emerald City Comic Con 2026, months before the release of the third and final part of Warner Bros.' cinematic Dune saga. And while MacLachlan did give me a positive response, it came with a caveat.
"I'll tell you what," said MacLachlan, "Whether or not he's a hero, he was my hero growing up."
MachLachlan went on to say that he was "a huge Dune fan," first picking up the novel at 15 and then revisiting the book frequently, almost yearly.
"So when I got a call on my little Panasonic voice machine," he continued, "This is back in - oh, was it a long time ago, back in the early 80s - talking about Dune, and a movie, and meeting a casting person, [...] I thought someone was pranking me. Because I think they knew how much I love the books. I couldn't figure it out. Turned out to be a real thing, and you know, here I am."
Dune: Part Three comes to theaters December 18. In the meantime, watch Popverse's interview with Kyle MacLachlan from ECCC '26 here:
Get deeper into the mystery with Popverse's Twin Peaks watch guide.
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