No Spice For The Kids! Jason Momoa Says ‘Dune’ Is an “Adult Movie”

If you’ve ever read Frank Herbert’s Dune, you probably know this already. But, just in case, Jason Momoa is here to tell you: Dune, the upcoming movie based on the book is for grown-ups. In a recent appearance on Jimmy Fallon, Momoa — who stars in the new film as warrior Duncan Idaho — revealed he has seen a cut of Dune…with his kids. Here’s what he said.

“It is a masterpiece,” Momoa told Fallon. “I’ve never been in anything on that scope. [Director] Denis [Villeneuve] is a genius. I got to see it. My kids were up here and I got to see it. First time I got to see something like that with my kids, and it’s a very adult movie. But it’s so beautiful and the cast is massive.”

If you watch the Fallon clip what you’ll notice is that Momoa kind of winces when he says he saw the movie with his kids. Now, Momoa’s kids are not preschoolers or anything, but still, his youngest was born in 2008. So, some of the extreme violence and patricide in Dune was probably a lot to take in.

The inevitable comparison Dune will get in the coming months will be to Star Wars, a comparison which is fair considering George Lucas was inspired by Dune, and both sci-fi sagas contain a lot of daddy issues and parents getting killed in horrible ways. But, the difference is Dune isn’t really kidding around. The Force will not save young Paul Atreides. This dude will have to figure out how to become friends with deadly sandworms to survive.

As for Momoa’s Duncan Idaho…well…if you’ve read the book then you know. To be clear Duncan is a hero and a total badass. But let’s just say these books aren’t all about having a happy ending. Imagine if Sam and Frodo never got back from Mordor, and you’ve got the tone of Dune. It’s going to be awesome, but let’s take Momoa’s comments as a piece of sly advice: Keep the very young kids away from the Spice!

Dune hits theaters and HBO Max on October 1, 2021.