Yes, the Dune 2 cast has seen the popcorn buckets
"I'm not gonna stick my hand in there," Josh Brolin asserted. "I'm good; I'll starve."
It’s been almost two weeks now since the internet collectively transitioned into a post-“Having seen the Dune 2 AMC popcorn bucket” world, a period that’s seen everyone, in their own way, find their peace with, well, this:
And while the buckets reached memetic status so fast that Saturday Night Live ran a sketch about them in its most recent episode—with Ayo Edibiri informing a bewildered Kenan Thompson that her popcorn bucket was now her one true love—they’ve also percolated up to the actual human beings whose work they’re meant to represent, i.e., the cast of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune 2.
Who’ve actually had to confront the majesty of a plastic molded Shai-Hulud a few times over the last few weeks, fielding questions about them from Jimmy Kimmel, and then again from Entertainment Tonight. The best part of either interview being the very different ways different cast members respond to the basic philosophical affront of The Hole—whether it’s Florence Pugh and Josh Brolin’s clear and obvious discomfort, or the more game attitudes put forth by Timotheé Chalamet or Dave Bautista. (Sadly, we have no adequate words to convey the sight of a cheerful Bautista miming fisting a popcorn bucket, so you’ll just have to watch the above ET video to get the full effect.)
Our favorite reaction, though, comes from Zendaya, who sidesteps all questions of artistic intent in favor of true practicalities: How the hell do you get the popcorn out? “Just from a, like, eating popcorn standpoint — you can’t get anything out of it!” she said in the ET interview, the “it” in question being the horrifyingly bewhiskered hell-orifice. “It pulls the popcorn out of your hand… You go in and get a handful and then by the time you get it out, then it’s not in your hand.” This is why we all need to look to Zendaya in times of national crisis (Yonic Popcorn Bucket-edition), folks: The woman keeps her eye on the prize.