The 'Epicenter' Of Dune 2 Lies In Its Human Relationships, Says Director Denis Villeneuve

We're fast approaching the release of "Dune: Part Two," the follow-up to Denis Villeneuve's epic adaptation of the seminal novel by Frank Herbert. The first film was a fantastic adaptation that captured Herbert's sociopolitical intrigue, intricate lore, and complex characters, while giving the story a unique visual style that didn't pull from any of the previous adaptations. 

With how expansive the story of "Dune" is, balancing the big picture with smaller character stories isn't easy, as we deal with a narrative that spans tens of thousands of years across the entire galaxy along with the small and personal story of a young man coming to terms with his destiny. In "Part One," we saw Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides lose his father, his station, and his home. Now, "Dune: Part Two" promises Paul will fulfill his destiny as he becomes a part of the Fremen and his revenge plan slowly takes form.

During CinemaCon, Villeneuve the footage shown to audiences depicted "Dune: Part Two as an "action-packed, epic war movie." But such a scale risks losing the intimate and more personal moments that made the first film so compelling. The solution, as Villeneuve tells Vanity Fair, was to focus on Paul and Zendaya's Chani. Their relationship is the "epicenter" of the story of the film. "I wanted to make a very human movie, very close to the characters, despite the scope of the film," the director said. "If we don't capture that [relationship between the two characters], if we don't have that onscreen, there's no movie."

One common complaint of Villeneuve's "Dune" is that it leaves out some of the intricate politics that made Herbert's novel so unique. While the film does portray the complicated political relationships and powers in the story, it doesn't hit you over the head with information, instead letting all that stuff brew in the background until it boils and affects Paul. For "Dune: Part Two," it seems Villeneuve is doubling down on this approach. 

Chalamet told Vanity Fair that, despite the complex geopolitics of the Dune, at the center of the story "there's this relationship where Chani sort of becomes a moral compass." While Paul's prophesied messianic role as the Kwisatz Haderach is huge and abstract, Chani is the "humanizing, grounding force" that counterbalances that. 

So it seems outside of the big battles and Austin Butler's new, rocking role, a big focus for the new film is the courtship of Paul and Chani, which proved to be easier said than done. As Zendaya explains, in order to convey that Paul and Chani come from vastly different planets, clumsiness was key. "Awkward and uncomfortable — there's all those things," she said. "It was interesting finding these tender moments in such turmoil and chaos. These characters are just young people forced into really, really intense circumstances."

As for how this reconciles with Chalamet's description of the relationship between Paul and Chani as a brother-sister bond, that remains to be seen.

"Dune: Part Two" hits theaters November 3, 2023.