17 March 2024

ScreenRant: “12 Biggest Dune 2 Book Changes from Denis Villeneuve’s Sequel”

Written by at 12:00

The director’s affinity for Herbert's original novel is well-chronicled, meaning that this adaptation should appease most readers watching Dune 2. Villeneuve once again did the work to adapt the second half of the book as closely as possible while still fitting within the confines of a nearly 3-hour runtime and building on any already established differences. However, this did mean that Dune 2 changed the book on more than one occasion. Whether it is entire characters missing from the story, character arc changes, or other story details differing, these are the biggest book differences in Dune 2.

Cooper Hood

As I suspected – and dreaded – Dune: Part Two makes several substantial changes to the book, revisions that are inexcusable to me and alter the narrative and characters beyond recognition. As I said before, I refuse to watch this movie in theaters, but from what I’ve read, this is nothing more than weak fanfiction that failed to grasp what drives the main characters and the intricate lore of the book. Then again, Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson worked as creative consultants – and praised the result; what better warning that the movie is disrespecting the original material than attaching these two to it?! I’m aware that commenting on a movie without watching it sounds presumptuous, and what follows is a rather long rant, so feel free to skip it if you don’t care about this topic.

Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha pointing a knife at Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Dune Part Two
Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha pointing a knife at Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Dune: Part Two

Dune 2 removes The Book’s 2 Year Time Jump

It might seem like a slight change, but this to me is the fundamental point where the adaptation goes sideways. This leaves too little time for Paul and Jessica to embed themselves into Fremen culture, for Paul’s relationship with Chani to develop, for him to wrestle with the ominous visions of Jihad and ultimately don the mantle of Kwisatz Haderach, and for the Fremen to accept Paul as their leader and Messiah.

The Fallout of Jamis’ Death is Forgotten

This point speaks to the watering down of Fremen culture in the movies compared to the book, most likely because Villeneuve wasn’t comfortable depicting its overt Muslim/Arabic aspects for his intended Western audience. As in current Muslim cultures, it is customary for Fremen to have more than one wife; after killing Jamis, Paul ‘inherits’ his wife and children. This becomes relevant later, as Paul forcibly marries Irulan to take control of the Imperium; as a raised Fremen, book Chani would accept this arrangement as somewhat in line with her native culture, whereas the movie goes in a different direction, changing her role and the importance of her culture in the process.

Some Internet chatter seems to suggest Jamis returns multiple times in Paul’s visions, and that Stilgar identifies this image of Jamis with malevolent desert spirits, djinns. I sincerely hope that I misunderstood this, as it has no basis in the books and makes Paul sound delusional – and Stilgar foolish for following a man who sees ghosts. If we read this as seeing alternative paths where he didn’t slay Jamis, this is not really how Paul’s visions work; he can see past events through Other Memories, and future possibilities branching from the present. But as soon as he makes a choice, the discarded possibilities fade from the landscape of visions, as they are no longer reachable – so once Jamis is dead, he shouldn’t be a part of the spice visions any longer.

Count Fenring’s Role is Removed from Dune 2

I’m willing to let this one pass, as this character, as compelling as he is in the books, has a minor role in the first novel and zero presence in the sequels. Then again, his wife Lady Margot and her unborn daughter by Feyd-Rautha are also absent from later novels, so she could have been just as easily written out to make room for poignant moments with the main characters.

Thufir Hawat is Completely Missing from Dune 2

In contrast, this might seem a minor omission, but in the books Paul’s Mentat training was one of the key ingredients to him becoming the Kwisatz Haderach – Thufir’s character has a very compelling and emotional arc in the second half as well. Villeneuve did not include the term ‘mentat’ in the first movie, and now he disappointingly removes the characters as well, erasing a large chunk of Dune lore in the process.

Alia Atreides’ Dune 2 Role is Very Different from The Book

Not sure what Villeneuve was smoking here thinking that a fetus speaking telepathically to its mother would be easier to digest for audiences than a two-year-old with mature intellect. Not a fan of this change because it diminishes Alia for potential future movies. Likely this was linked to skipping the time-jump, either as a consequence or even the reason for it, which makes it more egregious. If you wanted to hide Alia, you could have relegated her to one of the remote desert sietches for the final act of the movie – no need to rewrite the whole sequence of events to avoid Alia being born.

Dune 2 leaves out Chani & Paul’s First Son & His Tragic Fate

Not a huge deal to omit the first Leto II (confusing, right?) from the story – except that it strips a great deal of depth from Chani’s and Paul’s relationship. This process has begun with pointless changes in the first part; there Villeneuve gender-swapped Liet-Kynes, who in the books is Chani’s father (I don’t recall if there is any family connection between the two in Villeneuve’s adaptation). Kynes’ murder adds to the kinship between Chani and Paul, as they initially grow closer due to their shared grief over the loss of their fathers as a result of the Harkonnens and the Emperor’s machinations.

Dune 2 makes Chani Part of the Lisan Al Gaib Prophecy

We’re deep into horrendous fanfic territory with this one. In the book, Chani’s Fremen name, Sihaya (desert spring), comes from Kynes’ promise of ecological transformation, that Arrakis could one day cease to be Dune and become a lush garden, a vision that was embraced by Fremen society just as much as Bene Gesserit implanted prophecies. Another crucial aspect of the book first sidelined by Villeneuve, and now butchered into this…

Another related scene I heard about on YouTube (I think) made my head hurt as well: Jessica using the Voice on Chani to force her to bring Paul back from his Water-of-Life-induced coma… Book Fremen would have taken Jessica’s water over such an affront, Reverend Mother or not, as they were quite superstitious and wary of ‘witchcraft’. This also ignores Chani’s role as Sayyadina, basically Reverend Mother in training – such a rift between the two would almost amount to a schism in the Fremen religious establishment.

Gurney gets His Revenge on Rabban Harkonnen in Dune 2

Inconsequential change. I feel that the book does it better though, as it sticks with the overall theme that in life you rarely get what you want – and if you do, it may be a poisoned fruit… Paul gets his revenge on the Harkonnen, but starts a holy war in the process.

Paul doesn’t kill Baron Harkonnen in The Book

Also rather minor, but ties into Alia’s changes by diminishing her role with no real upside. Book Alia and her scene with the Baron was a distillation of the terrible unleashed forces of the Fremen and Other Memories – if a two-year-old girl can wreak havoc, imagine what her older brother and a planet-full of fanatics can do; movie Alia is a gross CGI fetus puppeteering her mother…

Feyd-Rautha’s Death is Changed after a very different Fight with Paul

The minutia of the fight itself are not that relevant, but removing the poisoned blades completely alters Feyd-Rautha’s character from a genuine Harkonnen who plays dirty to ensure victory (and a spoiled heir who hasn’t won a single fair fight because his opponents were generally servants too afraid of defeating him) to someone honorable(?).

The Great Houses don’t challenge Paul’s Ascension to Emperor in The Book

It sort of makes sense in the movie context as setup for the sequel and the Jihad, but only because Villeneuve glossed over the role of the Spacing Guild in the game of Houses, and how essential spice is to interstellar travel. I seem to remember someone mentioning that in the movie Paul is threatening to use the Atreides nuclear arsenal against spice, but I prefer not to delve into it too much, it’s such a monumentally stupid idea.

Chani doesn’t leave at the End of Dune

I have no words for how wrong this change is – the result of Villeneuve’s obsession to have her play a more leading role. It completely betrays Chani’s character from the books, her close relationship with Paul (which evidently hasn’t had the same trajectory in the film), and the role Paul played in Fremen society at that point. I have no idea how Villeneuve intends to adapt Messiah, given how much this ending diverges from the original text.

The underlying issue here is that Villeneuve can’t refrain from putting a Western, modern, however you might call it, spin on this story that is supposed to be foreign, set some 20.000 years in the future on a faraway planet. The idea that somehow young Fremen are less religious and thus more reluctant to embrace the prophecy and Paul’s role as Messiah is contrary to the books – there is growing discontent in Fremen ranks, but only years later, in Dune: Messiah – and I see it as a product of contemporary American thinking (old people = conservative, young people = progressive).

This artificial divisiveness diminishes the core message of the books, that blindly following a messianic leader can lead to decay and destruction. It also undermines the Fremen as a formidable fighting force – if some resist Paul’s leadership, there’s less troops to subdue the Imperium – and runs contrary to their history – the extreme environment on Arrakis and Harkonnen oppression have forged strong bonds between them that make such quibbles over political matters seem trivial. In other words, a core advantage of the Fremen on the battlefield and for their survival on Dune is that they’re united, among themselves and behind Muad’dib.

The spice orgy, another element ignored in the movie (can’t have sex and liberal drug use on screen!), provides another avenue for bonding between members of the tribe, which might increase their susceptiveness to messianic messages and religious fanaticism.

Also, a modern movie can’t have a leading female character staying faithful to her long-time partner! Chani needs to be assertive, strong, independent – never mind that Chani in the books was all that and she chose to stay at Paul’s side as concubine whose status was above his lawful wife in every aspect except appearances. Political marriages were quite common in Feudal systems, and as mentioned before having multiple wives was common among Fremen; Chani leaving because Paul ‘betrayed her for another women’ makes her sound like a hotheaded teenager, not a battle-hardened Desert warrior…

I’m at least comforted in my frustration that more people seem to have woken up to the fact that Denis Villeneuve has lost the plot with this adaptation. There is growing disapproval on the Dune subreddit, which was overwhelmingly effusive for the first movie. A couple of excellent essays critique Chani’s portrayal and Villeneuve’s treatment of Jessica and the Bene Gesserit. Of course, that means too little, as Villeneuve seems too self-absorbed and proud of his misguided direction to course-correct for the final movie in the trilogy.

It might seem hypocritical to be so dismissive of this adaptation while I enjoyed The Wheel of Time series, another recent example where fans riled against what they saw as a betrayal of the source material. Maybe I would have felt the same had I read those books, but to me the main difference is that writers on The Wheel of Time have strived to stay true to the characters and their plots converge on key moments from the series, even while taking a different path to get there. In Dune’s case, the more we advance, the further plot and characters diverge from the source.

As for the sequel… I see two ways Villeneuve might continue the story to bring it to a conclusion of sorts. One would be that Chani was already pregnant with Paul’s twins as she fled into the desert. She might die at birth and call for Paul at the last minute to entrust the children to him. In this case the timeline is accelerated further; the visions of a grown-up Alia speak against this chain of events, but she might continue to be a vision in Paul’s (or Jessica’s) mind.

Alternatively, Chani gives birth and raises the children in secret far away in the southern desert, fomenting unrest and eventually leading a rebellion against Paul’s theocracy, aiming to replace him on the throne with his son Leto II. I think this is the most likely route Villeneuve will take to continue propping up Chani’s role. Maybe Leto even commits to his second skin by the end of the movie before confronting his father, merging a small part of Children of Dune into the third movie as well.

A wilder theory would be that Paul himself, robbed of Chani’s love and companionship, would undergo the worm transformation by the end of the movie to cement his rule over humanity. That would be quite a departure from his book arc, but I wouldn’t put it past Villeneuve to degrade things even further. Although, on second thought, he will probably shy away from these weirder aspects of Dune, as he has constantly done up to now, and do something utterly plain like Chani defeating Paul in a duel with the help of Alia.

On a final note, I was astonished by how popular the second movie became on Twitter, inspiring lots of funny tweets and memes. Here are some of my favorites:

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