Reimagined Agency: The Women of Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two
The director made extensive changes to Dune’s beloved female characters. To what extent were these necessary?
It’s March 1st, 2024, and hundreds of people are exiting IMAX theaters after the premiere of Dune: Part Two. Most were impressed by Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation, chatting excitedly about the cinematography, battle scenes, and star-studded performances.
However, more than a few fans of the original Dune book found themselves confused—even disappointed—by the changes the director made to the sci-fi epic, particularly when it came to the two principal female characters, Chani (Zendaya) and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).
Kara Kennedy, renowned Dune scholar and author, felt particularly frustrated. “Villeneuve and other cast and crew members keep talking in interviews about how supposedly more ‘empowered’ they made the women,” Kennedy told me over Zoom, “but I just don’t see how you can justify that. To me, the women were already powerful.”
While Dune: Part Two portrays Chani as Paul’s narrative foil—someone to check his power and doubt his being the Messiah—in the original book, she remained her lover’s strongest ally. And while the movie portrays Jessica as overtly villainous—pressuring her son Paul into the role of religious leader, a role he supposedly didn’t want—in the original book, she remained morally conflicted.
Given the explosive popularity of Villeneuve’s adaptations—the second film made over $180 million in just its opening weekend—major differences from the beloved source material are sure to raise some eyebrows. For what purpose did Denis Villeneuve change the roles of Jessica and Chani? Were these story shifts necessary to enhance the agency of women in the Dune universe and appeal to modern audiences? Or do they end up flattening the characters instead?
Chani and Jessica are at odds with one another in Villeneuve’s adaptation. (Dune: Part Two, Warner Bros.)
To his credit, Villeneuve is undertaking a momentous task—adapting a revered sci-fi epic into two 3-hour films, with a third in the works. He must simultaneously cater to the whims of book fans while captivating new audiences. This requires a certain dedication to the original narrative and necessary adaptations for the silver screen, all while staying true to Frank Herbert’s vision. It’s not easy. And Villeneuve seems to be doing a pretty good job so far, according to critics.
With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at one scene in the film—Jessica undergoing the Agony—to illustrate some of the director’s changes from the source material.
As a member of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood—and the mother of Paul (Timothée Chalamet), the presumed Messiah—Jessica has an important mission. She must drink from the Water of Life and undergo an excruciating ordeal called the Agony in order to become a Reverend Mother, replacing the current woman in the role. If she succeeds, she will take her place within the Fremen, the indigenous people of the sand planet Arrakis, as a religious leader.
In Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, everyone grasps the importance of the Agony. The ceremony unites a community of women of radically different life stages: elderly, middle-aged, young, and unborn. Chani offers Jessica the poisonous Water of Life, with the understanding that Jessica can unlock the memories of all Reverend Mothers before her. Kennedy called the book scene “one of the most intimate portrayals of women and a fetus in literature.”
But in Villeneuve’s adaptation, things are different. Instead of having Chani fulfill her central role in the Agony as she does in the original book, the director places her outside the cave and has her poke fun at the ceremony instead. Film Chani doubts the ancient prophecies. She’s skeptical of the existence of a Messiah. As such, she ridiculous the religious practice, even laughing when someone calls the Water of Life “worm piss.”
It’s a moment of comic relief for the audience coming to see Dune: Part Two. But at what price? While Herbert’s original novel places a lot of weight on this female-driven religious ceremony, Villeneuve’s film succeeds in marginalizing it by tucking it away in a small cave, shielding the women from view, and changing Chani’s character to ridicule it. The director ends up trivializing the Fremen religion (along with its women leaders) for the sake of Chani’s ‘empowerment.’
“I was like… uh… what?” Kennedy reflected in our interview, with a laugh. “It’s such a core part of Fremen culture in the book.”
In past interviews, Villeneuve has asserted that women are the ‘epicenter’ of his Dune universe. He wanted Dune: Part Two to be a movie focused on the Bene Gesserit, an enigmatic sisterhood wielding profound religious, societal, and political sway across the cosmos. So, he made Jessica’s role more pronounced while eliminating other characters altogether. And instead of letting Chani “disappear in Paul’s shadows” like she allegedly did in the book, Villeneuve made her skeptical of the messianic prophesies. This uses her character to “give us a new perspective on Paul, in order to get closer to Frank Herbert’s intentions.” (Herbert always wanted Dune to be read as a cautionary tale against charismatic leaders). One A.V. Club article described this new Chani as “expanded and empowered” compared to her book counterpart.
But some scholars believe these changes actually disempower the female characters. Dr. Kara Kennedy has written extensively on women’s agency in the Dune universe. In her article “Dune: Part Two’s Treatment of Women is an Abomination,” Kara writes that the film weakens the maternal bond between Jessica and Paul, reducing Jessica to “a schemer increasingly alienated from her son.” Kara further laments the fact that Dune: Part Two places Paul and Chani at odds with one another—they share only a few intimate moments throughout the movie—and that Chani’s pregnancy, well documented in the books, is completely absent on screen. It’s a flattening of Chani’s multifaceted identity as fighter, religious leader, lover, and mother. In general, Kara argues the movie’s treatment of the Bene Gesserit reinforces “problematic stereotypes about powerful women”—in omitting other key organizations in the Dune universe from his films, such as the Spacing Guild and the Bene Tleilax, Villeneuve unintentionally paints the female order as inherently manipulative. This omission not only simplifies the complex political landscape of the Dune universe but also risks portraying the female Bene Gesserit as the sole architect of the story’s conflicts.
“It’s a flattening of Chani’s multifaceted identity as fighter, religious leader, lover, and mother.”
Abu Zafar and Leo Wiggins—hosts of Gom Jabbar, the highest-rated Dune podcast in the world—were more sympathetic to Villeneuve’s changes. Calling Dune: Part Two an “almost perfect film,” Leo argued that critiques like Kara’s are “fine-scalpel” and fail to capture all the other aspects that make the film great, including its cinematography. “In how many other sci-fi epics are the women the most active and effective people in the universe?” Leo rhetorically asked in our Zoom call.
Both Abu and Leo believe that the changes made to Chani’s character make sense given the constraints of the film medium. In the original book, Paul is reluctant to becoming the Messiah. His visions of the future (in which he becomes a murderous tyrant leading a holy war across the galaxy) scare him, and his internal conversations reflect this. But it’s difficult to translate these streams-of-consciousness to the big screen—and that’s where Chani comes in.
Chani can be understood as a tool the filmmakers used to externalize Paul’s internal turmoil. “Chani is the voice of the audience,” Abu explained. “We need a character like Chani to question Paul, to be like, wait, this is bullshit.” Essentially, Abu explained, if there is no one left to question Paul’s actions, then it becomes all too easy for the audience to assume Paul is the ‘good guy’ and therefore fail to grasp Herbert’s central message.
When I asked Kara about this, she pointed out that in the original book, there did exist some voices of dissent, including Jamis, a Fremen man who was shortly killed, and even Paul’s own mother Jessica at certain points. “I get that Herbert’s critique was quite subtle in the first book, so having some character being the voice of dissent in the film makes sense,” Kara admitted. “But having Chani do that means they ignored all her other roles, as religious leader, as lover, as mother. The price of having the voice of dissent be her was high.”
In a similar vein, Abu did acknowledge one critique of the film, which is that Jessica and Chani, even in their new ‘empowered’ states, are still used as tools to tell Paul’s story. “[Women] were given more agency, sure. Like, we actually hear what Chani is thinking in the film, compared to the book,” Abu explained. “But in the end, the women were still used as story devices to drive Paul’s plot forward.”
I’ve been a fan of Dune since high school, when I devoured the book over the course of a week-long family trip to the mountains of Japan. Denis Villeneuve, whose work on Arrival cemented him as one of my top directors, has brought an epic scale and depth to the adaptation that, despite its imperfections, remains mesmerizing. So, like many fans, I am itching to see how these deviations will play out in the third (and final) film of the series.
Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three doesn’t have a release date yet, but it will be based on Frank Herbert’s sequel, Dune Messiah. In the book, Paul leads the Fremen in a religious jihad across the galaxy, resulting in billions of human deaths. Book Jessica is almost entirely absent, hidden away on the faraway planet, while Book Chani continually supports her lover’s increasingly tyrannical rule, even giving birth to twins.
Paul Atreides is a duke-turned-Messiah, poised to wage a holy war across the galaxy. (Dune: Part Two, Warner Bros.)
So the question remains… how will Villeneuve’s “expanded and empowered” female characters stand in contrast to their book counterparts? Will Jessica continue to persuade Paul to embrace his dark destiny? Will Chani continue to act as the voice of dissent?
As Kara rightly put it in our interview, “How will you get from this Chani to that Chani?”
Aligned with Villeneuve’s character reimaginings, I expect similarly bold twists from the original text in Dune: Part Three. Jessica, though physically distant, might still emerge as a pivotal force in the film, steering events with political savvy through communication with Paul and his sister Alia. This would not only maintain her relevance within the storyline but also amplify her role as a powerful matriarch with unparalleled insight.
Chani, far from just a supportive partner, could evolve into a force to be reckoned with, grappling with the moral and ethical ramifications of Paul's jihad. Her reimagined role as a central voice of dissent could feasibly add depth to the narrative, spotlighting her personal struggle with Paul and injecting fresh views on leadership, power, and the cost of ambition.
Arguably, Villeneuve’s changes to Jessica and Chani in Part Two didn’t enhance women’s agency in the film. On the contrary, their transformed roles may have failed to capture the nuanced and multifaceted power of women in the Dune universe. But these characters perhaps served a valuable purpose: to act as the voice of the audience. By personifying the two contradictory opinions of Paul’s ascent to power, Jessica and Chani helped clarify the story’s often misunderstood message to those who didn’t read the books.
“By personifying the two contradictory opinions of Paul’s ascent to power, Jessica and Chani helped clarify the story’s often misunderstood message to those who didn’t read the books.”
It's a high-stakes gamble to modernize a classic while keeping its soul intact, aiming to wow newcomers and satisfy die-hards alike. As Dune: Part Three looms on the horizon, all eyes are on Villeneuve—can he deliver a finale that stands the test of time and expectation? Will he treat female representation with the nuance and depth it deserves? Only time will tell, but the anticipation is as vast as the universe Herbert imagined.
Abu Zafar and Leo Wiggins are the hosts of Gom Jabbar, the highest-rated Dune podcast in the world. They have recorded 170 extensively-researched episodes covering all aspects of Dune lore.
Dr. Kara Kennedy is the author of Adaptations of Dune: Frank Herbert’s Story on Screen, Frank Herbert’s Dune: A Critical Companion and Women’s Agency in the Dune Universe: Tracing Women’s Liberation through Science Fiction as well as articles on various Dune topics.
References
Britt, R., & Bui, H.-T. (2024, February 19). Why Dune 2 Had to Change the Bene Gesserit. Inverse. https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/dune-2-bene-gesserit-denis-villeneuve
Child, B. (2024, March 7). ‘Completely unfilmable’: The Dune universe is about to get weird. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/07/dune-movie-part-two-book-messiah
Garbutt, E. (2024, March 1). Dune 2’s divergence from the novel shifts the focus to women – and motherhood. GamesRadar. https://www.gamesradar.com/dune-2-women-motherhood-lady-jessica-chani-irulan-zendaya-rebecca-ferguson-florence-pugh/
Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. Chilton Books.
Herbert, F. (1969). Dune Messiah. Putnam Publishing.
Keates, E. (2024, March 1). Denis Villeneuve explains why he changed Chani in Dune: Part Two. The A.V. Club. https://www.avclub.com/denis-villeneuve-dune-part-two-zendaya-chani-herbert-1851297779
Kennedy, K. (2021a). Conclusion. In Women’s Agency in the Dune Universe: Tracing Women’s Liberation through Science Fiction (pp. 215–220). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89205-0_7
Kennedy, K. (2021b, September 8). Frank Herbert, the Bene Gesserit, and the Complexity of Women in the World of Dune. Reactor. https://reactormag.com/frank-herbert-the-bene-gesserit-and-the-complexity-of-women-in-the-world-of-dune/
Kennedy, K. (2024, March 3). Dune: Part Two’s Treatment of Women is an Abomination. Dune Scholar. https://dunescholar.com/2024/03/04/dune-part-twos-treatment-of-women-is-an-abomination/
Villeneuve, D. (Director). (2021). Dune: Part One [Sci-fi]. Warner Bros. Pictures.
Villeneuve, D. (Director). (2024). Dune: Part Two [Sci-fi]. Warner Bros. Pictures.
Wiggins, L., & Zafar. (2024). Gom Jabbar: A Dune Podcast. Lore Part Media. https://www.loreparty.com/show/gom-jabbar/