The Dune universe established by Frank Herbert was vast, deep, and richly detailed. Despite the fact that it is widely regarded as the best literary work in the science fiction genre, it is its strengths that prevent it from being converted into a live-action picture. When David Lynch made the Dune film in 1984, he faced the difficulties and challenges of converting an 800-page novel into a two-hour picture.
While Lynch’s film was not necessarily a poor one, it failed to bring the desired effect and paint the accurate picture that Frank Herbert had intended. Nevertheless, Denis Villeneuve seemed to learn from his predecessor’s mistake and convinced the studio that the only efficient way of turning Herbert’s novel into a film was by dividing the film into two parts.
And well, seeing that the request made sense, the production company Legendary Pictures and distributors Warner Bros. Pictures agreed. With news that a sequel to Dune has been confirmed, it is only imperative that we dwell on the future of Villeneuve’s film and what may happen in Dune 2. But before we begin, let us warn you that in this video, there are going to be some spoilers about Dune 2021. But rest assured, your time here is going to be worthwhile.
Before we get into our theory regarding the franchise’s future, it is crucial to understand the numerous groups we saw in the overly complicated film. To begin with, the Dune universe’s governmental system is very similar to that of Game of Thrones.
Emperor Shaddam IV of Padishah lords over the entire world, but in order to maintain effective control over his empire, he has assigned planets to many Siridars, or Lords and Dukes.
Duke Leto Atreides, for example, is the ruler of the fertile planet Caladan, whereas Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the ruler of Geidi Prime, a dismal and industrial world. However, the Emperor may grant the lordship of more planets to whoever he chooses. When the film begins, we learn that the responsibility of ruling over the planet of Arrakis or Dune was taken from House Harkonnen and given over to House Atreides.
The assembly of all the leaders of these various houses is called the Landsraad. Much like the Game of Thrones, the Emperor has an imperial army called the Sardaukar under his command. These men are known to be the most proficient and prolific fighters in the entire universe and have never faced defeat.
It is fairly obvious that each House aims to attain power and domination over the other Houses, while some even get more ambitious and try to take the Emperorship for themselves by way of rebellions or coups. Among all this, there’s another crucial faction of the Bene Gesserit. This is an order comprising women who seek to take humanity to a course full of prosperity and happiness.
For this purpose, the Bene Gesserit have spent hundreds of years crafting an intricate breeding program to ensure the birth of the Kwisatz Haderach, a superbeing with the power to look into the past and future. The Kwisatz Haderach himself would be free from the control of the Bene Gesserit, who can control others through their voice, but he would be the one leading humanity into the Golden Path, which is essentially an enlightened path that humanity must follow to avoid doom.
So the Sardaukar says in Villeneuve’s Dune that dreams are messages from the deep. This sentence has more depth to it than meets the eye. To begin with, it is commonly assumed that dreams represent a message from the deep or distant past. Furthermore, the word “deep” connotes the planet Arrakis, which is arid and mostly desolate, with only the indigenous Fremen and enormous sandworms as inhabitants, among other indigenous fauna.
The next scene takes us through the landscape of planet Arrakis, and there’s a voice-over by a young Fremen girl named Chani, played by Zendaya Coleman, where she explains the importance of spice melange that is only found on Arrakis and how the Harkonnens have brutalized the indigenous Fremen in the process of obtaining the spice. Interestingly enough, throughout the film’s runtime, Paul has been having various visions and dreams about the Fremen and several other things.
And Jessica believes that Paul was, in fact, Kwisatz Haderach, the one who would lead humanity to the Golden Path. That is the basic setup of the plot and is enough for the viewer to understand what is happening. It’s not before long that we learn of a Harkonnen plot that Emperor Shaddam IV himself hatched, which helped overthrow House Atreides.
We really don’t want to spoil the delicious sequence of events that follow up to the crisis, and nor would we disclose the major deaths, but it is indispensable to learn about what happened, in the end, to figure out what could happen in the next film. So, after the fall of House Atreides, young Paul Atreides manages to escape with his mother, Lady Jessica, who was the concubine of Duke Leto Atreides and also a Bene Gesserit.
Their escape was facilitated by Duncan Idaho, played by Jason Momoa. Although free and beyond the control of any enemies, Paul and Lady Jessica found themselves in the middle of nowhere. Wherever they looked, they could only see an ocean of sand. And, underneath the sand crawl the humongous sandworms that desecrate anything that causes rhythmic vibration.
Under these circumstances, their only way out was finding the Fremen. In the end, Paul and Jessica do find the Fremen, and Paul is hailed as the messiah or Lisan Al Gaib and accepted into the Fremen community so that they can work together and take over the planet Arrakis from those who wronged them.
House Harkonnen appears to have reclaimed control of Arrakis and, by implication, the monopoly on spice production. The Harkonnens were brutal people who had no qualms about using violence and killing without remorse. Emperor Shaddam IV and his Sardaukars stand with Harkonnens. So, how exactly would Paul and the Fremen take over Arrakis? And, would he and Jessica survive the harsh living conditions of the Fremen?
I mean, they are used to lush greenery and waters of the bountiful planet of Caladan. And now, they’ve suddenly been thrown into a planet that sees no rainfall. The conditions are so harsh that the Fremen drain water from the dead because water is that precious a resource.
The first and most pressing issue for Paul and Jessica would be adjusting to the Fremen way of life and Arrakis’ harsh living conditions. Even if they succeed, there will be much to gain because the Fremen are essentially a tribal community, whereas their opponents, the Harkonnens and Sardaukar, are prolific combatants who can utilize the blade and other weapons in a variety of ways.
If you are familiar with Frank Herbert’s story, you will know that Paul adopts the name Muad’dib as his public persona. So, that might happen in the next film. Interestingly enough, Lady Jessica was pregnant in Dune with Duke Leto Atreides’ child, and we should be able to see that Jessica delivers the baby girl, which would have immense consequences in the latter part of the story.
Paul was shown to have dreams about Chani in the trailers, and now that they are finally together, their love should bloom, and they should become a couple. Furthermore, Paul was hailed as the messiah by the Fremen, and it would only be wise that he takes up that role and becomes something of a religious leader for the Fremen, but he would have more roles to perform.
As you may already have deduced, these duties would be to train the Fremen in the way of fighting called the Weirding Way. Weirding Way is basically a fighting technique used by the Bene Gesserit and is also called the prana-Bindu. Now, we know that the Dune universe owes a lot to the Arabic traditions, but Prana Bindu is the amalgamation of two Sanskrit words meaning Life and Point.
But simply teaching the Fremen a new way of fighting wouldn’t be enough for all Fremen to consider Paul as their leader; he must do something that the Fremen do as a coming of age ritual. Paul will have to find his strength and ride a Sandworm. The mighty 400-meter long beast that can’t be controlled, how Paul would manage to accomplish this feat would be a thing to behold. But if you still wish to know about worm riding, you can check out our video titled Dune (1984) – Explained – Cult Classic Underrated Magnum Opus Sci-Fi That Was Ahead Of Its Time.
Moving on, Villeneuve’s film left the destiny of Josh Brolin’s Gurney Halleck, House Atreides’ weapons master and one of Paul’s instructors, uncertain. This suggests that we may see more of Josh Brolin in the upcoming film.
Gurney might find his way back to the Fremen camp and serve the Atreides family once more. But all of this would simply be the run-up to a climactic battle between the Fremen and the combined powers of the Harkonnens and Emperor Shaddam IV’s Sardaukars. But that wouldn’t be the end of the story because Paul would go on to become the emperor with the help of his little sister Alia.
The interesting thing about Alia is that at birth, she has the memories of all the Bene Gesserit that ever made it to the status of their leader or the Reverend Mother. She would play a significant role in the film, and so would other people such as Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban, one of the Baron’s nephews, and Javier Bardem as Stilgar, the leader of a tribe of Fremen.
As far as new characters are concerned, we would see Emperor Shaddam IV and Feyd Rautha, another one of Baron Harkonnen’s nephews who would be the polar opposite of Paul Atreides in strength and style. Feyd had an extremely crucial role in the novel and David Lynch’s film, where he served as the more cunning one of the Baron’s two nephews.
Villeneuve’s picture follows in the footsteps of David Lynch’s and seeks to stay as true to the source material as possible, namely Frank Herbert’s novel. Nonetheless, Villeneuve kept the film fresh by adding his own personal perspectives to the story, which was a welcome move given that he was adapting a work written in the 1960s for a film set in the 2020s, and technological advancement and people’s attitudes have changed dramatically in the last half-century.
The epigraphs and interior monologues that plagued David Lynch’s picture were dropped by Villeneuve. Instead, the information that needed to be dispersed to the audience was done through dialogues and visuals. All in all, the setting of the film is sure to get under your skin and settle there for quite a while.
To sum up, one can say that the film tackles and deals with all major plot points of the novel, such as the intergalactic politics, the power struggle between the Emperor, House Atreides, and House Harkonnen. But at its core, it serves as a story about Paul Atreides’s coming of age and his quest of leading a tribe of unknown and mysterious Fremen people towards a respectable life while also trying to take humanity towards the golden path.
Regardless of who returns in Dune 2, it will undoubtedly be an epic picture with more action than its predecessor, with more battles, worm riding, more hand-to-hand combats, and an epic conclusion.
However, there have been a number of Dune novels published by Frank Herbert himself, as well as the expanded universe created by his son Brian with the help of others. So, if Dune 2 becomes a commercial and critical success, Dune 3 would not really be far behind. They may even go for a prequel or a spin-off. Let us know in the comments of your opinion about Villeneuve’s 2021 film and where Dune 2 should head in the next installment.