Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune installment held back on introducing too many characters all at once, which likely helped make the film more accessible to a general audience by not showing too many faces all at once and splitting the first book into two parts (the David Lynch film becoming a bit of a bloated mess).
The filmmaker spoke with Empire about Dune in a spoiler-filled interview and explained the reasoning behind making the Spice Guild Navigators mysterious and not introducing “very important” characters like Feyd-Rathua Harkonnen.
“Definitely. That’s a choice that I personally brought on. There was enough characters that were introduced in this first part, and it will be more elegant to keep Feyd for [Dune: Part Two]. It will be definitely a very, very important character in the second part.”
Feyd is essentially Paul’s Harkonnen rival and the two eventually duel. His casting will be highly anticipated alongside new roles such as The Emperor, Princess Irulan, and Alia Atreides.
Villeneuve also clarified that the group seen in the film are simply Guild representatives, and not Navigators, who will be also saved for later. Another important group in the Dune mythology.
“They were Guild representatives. They were not Navigators. We don’t see the Navigators in this first part. That was the one of the challenges of this adaptation – I was trying to keep mystery alive as much as possible. We don’t show the Emperor, we don’t see the Spacing Guild Navigators. There’s a lot of characters that are mentioned or that are in the background that we don’t see right away. I tried to keep all the space-travelling as mysterious as possible, like almost bringing some kind of mysticism or sacred relationship with that part of the movie. Everything involving space is just evocated and very mysterious.”
Casting those key new characters will likely start soon with the studio eyeing a production start of July 18 and a release date of October 20, 2023.
DUNE – A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
SOURCE: EMPIRE
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