Dune 2 Entirely Skipping Over One Key Character’s Storyline Could Cost Denis Villeneuve Heavily While Making Dune 3
- Denis Villeneuve's screen adaptation of the Frank Herbert's Dune books has become quite popular.
- Alia Atreides' character in Dune: Part Two was largely undermined as she was only present in a dream sequence.
- The inclusion of Alia's character in Dune: Part Three might cause problem without the backdrop from Part Two.
The Dune franchise has become one of the most beloved fantasy franchises in an extremely short time, and for good reason. With Denis Villeneuve’s masterful direction and phenomenal performances from the ensemble cast, the franchise quickly gained popularity among cinephiles.
The latest installment of the franchise, Dune 2 has turned out to be a massive critical and commercial success. Villeneuve has also confirmed that a third movie is in the making, but there is one tiny glitch in all of this.
One of the new characters introduced in the movie is Paul Atreides’ (Timothée Chalamet) younger sister Alia Atreides (Anya Taylor-Joy), and her story is rather untouched even though she is going to have a major role in the third movie. If the creatives plan to stick to the source material by any means, making Alia important is going to be a tough job.
Alia Atreides Was Supposed to be a Major Character in Dune 2
At this point, it is no secret that Villeneuve’s Dune movies are big-screen adaptations of Frank Herbert’s eponymous novel series. It is also no secret that the movies have not exactly been true to their source material, and the biggest example of that was seen in Dune: Part Two, in which Alia Atreides was supposed to have a big role.
Alia only appears in the dream sequence in the movie and remains largely in utero. However, this was not the case in the novels as she had major scenes in the original novel itself. Since she was exposed to the Water of Life while in the womb, she was born a Reverend Mother and an Abomination. It has to be noted that in the novel she is only a few years, but wiser beyond her age.
In the first novel, Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV stated that Alia was the leader of a group of Fremen rebels. Additionally, she had also killed Baron Harkonnen by pricking him with a poisonous gom jabbar. This is very different from the movie in which Paul is the one who kills Baron. She also killed Sarduakar and Harkonnen soldiers with a crysknife, but the movie version of this event is quite different.
The novel Dune: Messiah, set 12 years after the events of the first novel, sees a blinded Paul exiled in the desert. This makes Alia the Regent and the guardian of Paul and Chani’s children Leto II and Ghanima. She is also a Reverend Mother and the ruler of the Atreides Empire, but power gets to her head and it does not take long for her to become evil due to her hunger for more power.
Denis Villeneuve Might Have to Work Hard to Establish Alia Atreides’ Position in the Next Movie
Villeneuve has been positive about the way he approached Lasy Jessica’s (Rebecca Ferguson) pregnancy (via Entertainment Weekly). He compressed the timeline in such a way that the progression of her pregnancy could be used as a measure of time. However, this is bound to create potential problems for Alia’s character in the next movie.
In Dune: Messiah, Alia is supposed to be a pre-teen or at most, a teenager. Taylor-Joy is way beyond that age so it remains to be seen what Villeneuve is planning to do with her character. In case he decides to adapt Children of Dune, it is going to be an even bigger challenge with regards to Alia.
Dune and Dune: Part Two are available for streaming on Max.
