Denis Villeneuve explains why he changed the characterization of a major player in Dune: Part Two

This story discusses plot elements of Dune: Part Two and the novel Dune: Messiah.

Even though Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic Dune was originally published in 1965, a lot of the material feels chillingly relevant today. Like the multiple factions warring over the resource-heavy planet of Arrakis, we’re also razing our environment to the ground, constantly at war, and terrifyingly susceptible to the influence of enigmatic cults of personality. In Dune: Part Two, his sweeping follow-up to 2021's Dune, director Denis Villeneuve didn’t need to update much from the original text to conjure the images of violence and tragedy we’re all so used to seeing on the news. However, he did make one key change to bring the material closer to Herbert’s original vision.

“When Frank Herbert wrote Dune and when the book came out, he felt that the readers misunderstood him,” Villeneuve explained at a recent post-screening talkback attended by The A.V. Club. “People saw Dune as a celebration of Paul Atreides, but for him he wanted the book to be a warning regarding messianic figures.”

Although he begins the story with good intentions—and here’s the spoiler warning for plot points of Dune and follow-up novel Dune: Messiah—Paul (Timothée Chalamet) ends up embarking on a holy war in his name that will devastate the universe and leave billions of corpses behind. Still, the original story is told in a way that makes it easy for readers to fall into the dangerous mindset that Paul’s mission is righteous and good, as many of the novel’s characters do as well. “In order to correct that perception, [Herbert] wrote Dune: Messiah that is almost like an epilogue,” Villeneuve went on to explain.

While the director has said he would adapt that novel into a potential third movie, he wanted to fight that interpretation earlier in his own franchise. “In my adaptation, specifically in Part Two, I’m trying to be faithful to the book, but more I’m trying to be faithful to Frank Herbert’s wishes and desires,” he said. To do that, he expanded and empowered the role played by Zendaya’s character Chani, a Fremen warrior who falls in love with Paul before he falls deeper into his destiny.

“Chani, in the second part of the book, kind of disappeared in Paul’s shadows. The character becomes less interesting,” Villeneuve continued. “But I thought there was a strong opportunity there to create a character there who would give us a new perspective on Paul, in order to get closer to Frank Herbert’s intentions.” It works. Through Chani’s eyes, we see Paul for who he truly is: a man as power-hungry as the rest of them.

Dune: Part Two is playing in theaters now.