This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist.
While we now sadly have to wait until 2024 to see the spice flow once more in Dune: Part Two, director Dennis Villeneuve has some details on what we can expect from his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s work.
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In an interview with Empire, Villeneuve shared that Part Two will differ from the first film in several ways. “Part One was like the promise of something, but Part Two delivers on that,” the director said, later adding that, “the first movie was more contemplative—a young man discovering a world. Here, it’s a war movie.”
It’s a war movie that better have some sandworm riding as well, please!
Villeneuve went on, however, to say that while Part Two will have a lot of battle scenes, it’s also a love story between Paul Atreides and Chani, respectively played by Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. In the first film, the two barely have any screen time together, although Paul has more than a few visions of Chani throughout the movie.
“At the very core is a love story between Paul and Chani,” Villeneuve said about Part Two. “How Paul will gain her trust, how she will open her heart to him, and how they will find a way to free Chani’s world from the Harkonnen grip. It’s a much more emotional movie.”
Part Two will also allow Chalamet to sink his teeth into becoming the leader/messiah of the Fremen, something that Villeneuve said the actor was very eager to do.
“I remember when I was doing Part One, I kept saying to Timothée, ‘No, you’re just Paul.’ Because he was reaching for Muad’Dib. He was looking forward to becoming that hero and I was pushing the brakes,” said Villeneuve. “He has the power to change things, but he knows that if he does so, it will create an astronomical amount of violence and he will become a kind of dictator. He’s trying to find a way to avoid that ominous future—that’s the burden upon his shoulders.”
Dune: Part Two is now scheduled to come out in theaters on March 15, 2024.
