Villeneuve's reckless Dune casting threatens to use up Hollywood's entire supply of blockbuster stars

We have to assume that Dune director Denis Villeneuve has read Frank Herbert’s sprawling science fiction classic on at least more than one occasion. He doesn’t seem to have picked up the novel’s underlying environmental conservation message, though, at least if the casting for his upcoming movie is any indication: Dude’s churning through Hollywood’s non-renewable pool of big-name Hollywood blockbuster stars at a rate that’s looking increasingly less-sustainable by the day.

Case in point: THR reports today that Jason “Yes, I was Aquaman” Momoa is in negotiations for Villeneuve’s film; that comes just a day after once-and-future Thanos Josh Brolin signed on to the project, too. Counting Cable, that’s three big comic book characters being hoovered up by the movie in just two days. Calm down, Denis! Leave some superpowered beefcake for the rest of us, or at least give us a chance to replenish our own dwindling supply of “sand” and “spicy” puns.

Momoa is in talks to play Duncan Idaho, a character who barely registers in the original Dune, but who becomes improbably, insanely important in the later books. (He’s the secret to all human cloning, it turns out, and also he’s the only person who can out-fuck the warrior witches who control the universe via violence and sex. The later Dune books are lit, folks.) Brolin, meanwhile, is playing loyal fighter Gurney Halleck, which is mostly just funny because the part was played in the original David Lynch film by Patrick Stewart, and it’s fun to imagine those two swapping parts.

Momoa’s still only in negotiations, but Brolin’s been confirmed for the role. We can only assume the rest of the Avengers, the Justice League, and—we don’t know, the League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen? The Teen Titans?— are next, leaving an arid wasteland of C-list stars and deforested franchises in its wake.