Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a fictional character in the Dune franchise created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune and is also a prominent character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) by Herbert's son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson. The character is brought back as a ghola in the Herbert/Anderson sequels which conclude the original series, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007).
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen by John Schoenherr, from The Illustrated Dune (1978)
Orson Welles was cast as the Baron in Alejandro Jodorowsky's cancelled adaptation
Kenneth McMillan plays Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune (1984). He is centre here in 1977, in the TV show Rhoda
Stellan Skarsgård plays Baron Harkonnen in the 2021 film Dune and its 2024 sequel Dune: Part Two.
Dune is an American science fiction media franchise that originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert and has continued to add new publications. Dune is frequently described as the best-selling science fiction novel in history. It won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Hugo Award in 1966 and was later adapted into a 1984 film, a 2000 television miniseries, and a two-part film series with the first film in 2021 and a sequel in 2024. Herbert wrote five sequels, the first two of which were concomitantly adapted as a 2003 miniseries. Dune has also inspired tabletop games and a series of video games. Since 2009, the names of planets from the Dune novels have been adopted for the real-world nomenclature of plains and other features on Saturn's moon Titan.
Cover of the collectible card game Dune (1997)