Dune's Gholas Explained: How Jason Momoa Returns As Hayt In Dune 3

We live in a world where characters are constantly being brought back after appearing to die (thanks a lot, Marvel multiverse). But in "Dune: Part Three," things are different: We're getting back a character in a unique (and dare we say, well-earned) way that finally doesn't feel like a cheat code. Jason Momoa played Duncan Idaho, the beloved swordmaster in "Dune: Part One," who gave his life to save his lord, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), from the clutches of his enemies. Now, as spoiled by Timothée Chalamet in the wake of "Dune: Part Two," Momoa is back for "Dune: Part Three." 

But don't expect him to feel like Duncan Idaho. Instead, he's playing Hayt, a ghola — or regenerated iteration of Idaho's original body — that is better trained and eventually regains Idaho's original memories. 

If that sounds confusing, allow us to explain. In "Dune: Part One" Duncan exits the story after battling a horde of the Emperor's Sardaukar soldiers. Following a badass sword salute, Idaho shuts a sealed door, locking himself in a room full of his enemies with nothing but a Holtzman body shield and his blade. He takes out countless foes to buy his lord time to escape. The last we see of him is his impaled, lifeless body on the ground.

Idaho remains dead throughout "Dune: Part Two," but Momoa has popped up again in the promo material for the third part of director Denis Villeneuve's trilogy. But is he the same person? Not exactly. A better way to put it is that different pieces (both physical and mental) of his identity are reassembled into something closely resembling the original.

The return of Jason Momoa to the "Dune" universe starts with the creation of a ghola, which is named Hayt. These disturbing beings have allowed author Frank Herbert, and now director Denis Villeneuve, to legitimately bring people back from the dead – including Momoa's fan-favorite character. 

By the events of "Dune: Part Three" (which take place during the second book, "Dune Messiah"), the original Duncan Idaho has been gone for years. But another character with the same body and build as Idaho, Hayt, plays a critical part in that story. While this being looks, for all intents and purposes, like the original, a ghola isn't necessarily a clone by traditional standards. Rather, it is an artificial human grown from an original host that has died (that last detail is important).

One of the first times we encounter a ghola in the books is in "Dune Messiah," where author Frank Herbert describes the strange creation as "a being reconstructed from the dead flesh of the original." That's the distinction: A clone can come from a living host, but a ghola is most often harvested from a dead one. In either case, these beings are initially a kind of soft reboot of the original. They don't share memories, but there are genetic "imprints" and hints of the original, which we'll break down in a minute. First, let's look at how the physical body is regrown and reanimated.

A common trait of gholas in the "Dune" stories is that they require a piece of the original person's body to grow a new host body. The amount of the original varies (and becomes more efficient) over time. For instance, in "Dune Messiah," it's explained that the first ghola we meet, Hayt, was recreated from Duncan Idaho when the latter's mutilated but intact body was sold to genetic engineers called the Bene Tleilax. The original flesh and nerves are preserved, even if the body is in rough condition, as was Duncan's due to a nasty head wound sustained in the violent final moments of his original life.

Once they have the remnants of the human body, the Bene Tleilax set to work growing a fully healthy version in their axolotl tanks, which isn't easy. In the case of Duncan Idaho, the Sardaukar blow to his cranium holds up the recreation process. Reanimating eyes is also a struggle. Earlier in their creation (both in "Dune Messiah" and "Dune: Part Three"), gholas are created with metallic eyes due to shortcomings in the ghola manufacturing process. But while unsettling in appearance, these eyes are supposedly superior to human eyes.

Once the corpse is complete and reanimated, the Bene Tleilax have what equates to a blank slate to work with. In the case of Hayt, they teach him to be a mentat and Zensunni philosopher — basically, they train him to have incredible organic computing power and strong philosophical and religious standards.

Over time, the creation of gholas becomes more sophisticated. Rather than requiring the remains of a corpse, they can create new bodies from lesser remnants of a host, even small samples. Eventually, the metallic eye issue is resolved, too, allowing gholas to have organic eyes.

Gholas are technically blank copies of the original individual. They lack clear memories and are, in effect, a reboot. But that barrier between past and present iterations starts to break down in "Dune Messiah," specifically with Duncan Idaho's ghola, Hayt.

When Hayt first meets Paul, simply hearing his former self's lord stirs an unclear connection in him. He says Paul's voice gives him pleasure, adding, "This is a sign, say the Bene Tleilax, that I have heard the voice ... before." He adds that he doesn't have any memories of his former life — officially. But the patterns in his genetic makeup have "niches" that once-familiar things can fit into, adding, "There are voices, places, foods, faces, sounds, actions — a sword in my hand, the controls of a 'thopter..."

Author Frank Herbert clarifies that, at first, this appearance of past personality is full of false impressions. He describes it as "a loose, concealing garment of personality which moved in a way different from whatever the Tleilaxu had hidden here." In other words, a ghola can be taught to resemble a previous person. It can even have genetic inklings and similar behaviors. But in the end, it is trained by its makers. At least, that's the story when we first meet Hayt. 

By the end of "Dune Messiah," however, Hayt's subconscious programming to kill Paul Atreides strains and ultimately breaks this barrier, allowing him to recover Idaho's memories. Once that union of mental memory and physical reincarnation combines, in effect, we get a version of the original Duncan Idaho — memories, experiences, and all — rebirthed in the same (but patched-up) body. As the "Dune" books progress, this memory continuity becomes a normal feature of gholas.

Understanding how gholas are made and what their limitations are is one thing. But where do these creepy recreations come from? Who is taking the time to regrow living beings from dead corpses — and why are they doing that in the first place?

There are a couple of groups that make gholas in the "Dune" saga, but the technique is developed (and commercially capitalized on) by a faction in the Dune universe known as the Bene Tleilax. This is a group that lives in an isolationist society dominated by a disturbing religion and a penchant for manipulating genetics beyond the bounds of reason. They are described in "Dune Messiah" as having a "disturbing lack of inhibitions in what they created. Unbridled curiosity might guide their actions. They boasted they could make anything from the proper human raw materials — devils or saints."

From philosophers and moralists to soldiers, slaves, and sex toys, the Bene Tleilax can create it all. They manufacture a murderous doctor at one point. In "Dune Messiah," we even get to meet Scytale (played by Robert Pattinson in "Dune: Part Three"), who is a Face Dancer, a kind of Tleilaxu who has unlocked the ability to shapeshift and mimic the appearance of others.

As for motivation, the Bene Tleilax engage in their nefarious recreations with a pretty clear objective: money, influence, and ultimately power. The group is a predominant faction in the "Dune" canon thanks to their role as a necessary evil, creating genetic manipulations like gholas for other powerful figures to execute their own plans. This makes them a wealthy and influential force — one that operates in the shadows and shows up pulling the strings of power on more than one occasion.

The return of Duncan Idaho as the ghola Hayt is a major moment in "Dune Messiah," and you can expect it to be a huge part of Denis Villeneuve's third "Dune" movie, too. But in the books, while Hayt is the first important ghola we meet in the series, he's far from the last. Even if you're talking strictly about Duncan Idaho gholas, the poor swordsman ends up being recreated by different groups for various people and purposes over and over again as the novels progress.

For instance, Emperor Leto II, the son of Paul Atreides, commissions the creation of a series of Idaho gholas, each with the memories of the original. In the later phases of their history, the Bene Gesserit order recreations of Idaho as well, this time with the collective memories of the original combined with the gholas that follow.

The Bene Tleilax are able to use their refined ghola production (combined with the ability to recover memory) to recreate their own bodies, in effect giving themselves immortality. But eventually, their morbid monopoly is broken by the Bene Gesserit: In the sixth "Dune" book, "Chapterhouse: Dune," the shadowy order succeeds in creating a ghola of its legendary commander and mentat, Miles Teg, recreated from a mere collection of the original's fingernail scrapings.

Whether you're talking about the memory-free, metal-eyed Hayt presented early in "Dune Messiah" or the more sophisticated future ghola models from later in the series, the Frankenstein-esque concept remains a chilling yet central part of Frank Herbert's "Dune" universe. Expect it to play a critical role in "Dune: Part Three" too.