With the recent release of the trailer in front Dune: Part two, Dune the fever has rekindled and it already seems hotter than before the premiere of the first film. By the time the movie is released in November, Paul Atreides, Lady Jessica, and Chani might even be household names. But even though Frank Herbert wrote six Dune novels, this film franchise is unlikely to last five more films. We should be happy if we get another one.
“I always imagined three films,” says Denis Villeneuve told EW in an interview in 2021. “That would be the dream. It would be fun to follow Paul Atreides and his full arc. The third film would be a full adaptation of Dune Messiah, the much shorter second book in the series that takes readers to the end of Paul’s reign.
It’s a worthy goal for Villeneuve, one that no fan of the books could reasonably complain about: the fact that we got any decent adaptation at all is a miracle. It’s also easy to see why a director would want to step away from the series after that Messiah. While the first two Dune books can be weird and inaccessible at times, they are nothing compared to the books that come after.
Image: Brad Holland/GP Putnam’s Sons
To quickly recap: Book three in the series, Children of Dune, jumps forward nine years after Paul’s supposed death. His twin children, Leto II and Ghanima, have full access to every thought and feeling their parents ever felt, right up until the twins were conceived. They also have access to their grandparents’ memories, their great-grandparents’ memories, and so on. So even though Paul’s children are only 9 years old, they both talk, think and act with the wisdom of gods. What does Leto II choose to do with this wisdom? The rational: he transforms himself into a giant indestructible worm and becomes emperor of the entire universe.
The fourth book, God Emperor of Dune, jumps ahead 3500 years. Leto II is alive and still a giant worm. Thanks to his invulnerable monopoly on the herb, he retains complete control over the universe. To make things even weirder, he’s also cloned Duncan Idaho (the warrior played by Jason Momoa in Villeneuve’s Dune) to serve him, even though each new Duncan inevitably turns on him and must be replaced. Meanwhile, a descendant of Leto named Siona plots a rebellion against him, unaware that Leto has been watching her every step of the way and allowing her to get as far as she has. Leto also falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Hwi Noree, who complains all the time that he cannot have sex with her like a normal man. It’s very funny.
From an adaptation point of view, this book is a nightmare. Not only would a director have to figure out how to make a giant worm character look good on screen for two hours straight, he’d have to figure out how to sell the general audience on an entry in a franchise where almost everyone involved with the first few movies is long dead. There is also the obstacle that god emperor is remarkably light on action: most of the book consists of Leto II pondering philosophical dilemmas, sometimes discussing them with his subordinates, but mostly talking to himself. More than any other book in the series, this is a story suited specifically for literature, not film.
But like many fans of the books, I still want this movie. I want to see the giant worm monstrosity on the big screen, however questionable the CGI turns out to be. I literally want to see him crush his enemies with his giant, clumsy worm body, as he does several times in the book. I want to see the worm cry and grumble because he can never be a good husband to the woman he fell in love with 10 seconds ago. I want to see a gender-swapped version of the question: “Would you still love me if I were a worm?” tackled on the big screen once and for all.
That helps God Emperor of Dune also happens to be the best book in the entire series. This may be a distraction from the public consensus, but it’s true: Dune is the fun episode of the series with the triumphant, crowd-pleasing ending, but god emperor is the story Frank Herbert was clearly most interested in telling. This is the book that the first three books led to and upon which the last two books are written. Maybe things would look different if Herbert had time to finish his seventh and final Dune book, but it turns out that god emperor is the thematic climax of the series.
As silly as the book’s premise sounds on the surface, it works as a climax because Leto II’s position as an immortal, nearly invulnerable worm has placed him in a fascinating thematic spot. He has access to almost all knowledge in the universe, and he is allowed to reshape the world in his own image for over 500 pages, without any restrictions. Usually a character in Leto’s position is the story’s villain, or meets his demise not long after attaining full power. But Frank Herbert gives Leto II thousands of years to do anything he wants, and Herbert pushes through this thought experiment as thoroughly as anyone could have hoped.
A movie couldn’t do all of this with the depth the book can handle, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Despite what you’ll hear from many frustrated fans of other book series that have been adapted for TV and film, the purpose of an adaptation shouldn’t be to give us a scene-by-scene re-creation of the source material. The goal should be to zoom in on the emotional core of the story and then restructure the events to work on screen, while making sure the core of the story still makes sense.
We know from Denis Villeneuve’s previous work that he understands this. His 2016 movie Arrival made massive changes to the Ted Chiang novella it was based on, all of which served to make the story fit better on screen. In the meantime, Dune: part one cut out almost everything related to the book’s subplot of the characters attempting to eradicate the Harkonnen spy from among them, which makes sense since the book tells this storyline almost entirely through the inner thoughts of the characters. The film instead focuses on the core story of the novel’s first half, which is all about young Paul going through a great personal tragedy and being forced to become a leader before he’s fully ready. Part One nails this storyline, which is all it really needs to do.
Likewise the core of god emperor is simple. It is a story about a man who turns himself into an inhuman monster because he believes it is necessary to save humanity. His sandworm exterior is just a way to examine the cost of power and absolute knowledge, and whether that cost is worth it. To make this book a worthwhile movie, the writers don’t have to try to squeeze every scene from the book into the movie; they should only explore this one concept.
a god emperor film would still be strange and alienating to the general public, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. The beauty of the Dune book series is the author’s apparent refusal to cater to conventional mass storytelling. Villeneuve has already taken the same approach: as in the book, the protagonists of the first film have been widely criticized for being cold, aloof, and humorless, and the pacing and world-building has already been criticized as slow and confusing. These are all unavoidable consequences of adjusting the Dune franchise loyal – but for a small but loyal segment of the public, this is also the appeal.
Fans love Dune because of how weird it is. We love how little Frank Herbert seemed to care about alienating readers who weren’t on his wavelength. In a movie landscape where blockbusters feel increasingly safe and predictable, it’s refreshing to get a franchise that isn’t afraid to push boundaries, not just with its aesthetic, but with its structure and character choices. god emperor is the Dune series at its weirdest and boldest, which means it’s also Dune in its purest form.
Yes, in terms of box office, the Dune movies will almost certainly peak Dune: part two, followed by a sharp drop as Villeneuve adapts the increasingly outlandish sequels. We know that a god emperor film would lead to angry reactions from the public who Beau is scared resists seem tame in comparison. We know that most audiences might not get past the barrier of being asked to empathize with a slimy main character who is 25 feet tall and weighs 10,000 pounds. But whether the general public realizes it or not, cinema needs its giant worm king, and it would be a shame if these movies never got delivered.