Zendaya Teases a Much Bigger Role for Chani in Dune: Part 2

Denis Villeneuve’s remake of the Frank Herbert novel Dune took the same gamble that Andy Muschietti took with his remake of Stephen King’s IT, putting out a movie that only covered half of the long and winding story without a green light for the second part in place. While there are many who believe that it was a foregone conclusion that Dune: Part 2 would be given the go ahead, it was officially confirmed after the first film managed a decent post-pandemic return at the box office, becoming the tenth highest grossing movie of the year at the time, and gained attention on HBO Max. Now in anticipation of the conclusion to the story, the movie’s star Zendaya has revealed in a new interview that her character will get more screen time the second time around.

Speaking to Deadline, the Spider-Man: No Way Home star revealed that unlike in the first movie, where she appeared mostly in visions and dream-sequences and was actually on set filming for just five days, the second half of the story will develop Chani’s character more, giving her more time on screen.

Zendaya said, “I want to grow with the characters I play, and with the people that I get to learn from. Anybody who has read the books knows there’s so much more to explore and deal with. What was cool for me having not been around for much of the first shoot was getting to see the movie from a completely fresh perspective, because I hadn’t seen the sets and the scenes for most of the movie. And watching it felt like just the beginning of this story.”

The sprawling fantasy epic has many characters, and therefore it seemed like some of those characters didn’t get as much screen time as others. In the novel, Chani helps Paul in his fight for Arrakis, and becomes one of the protagonist’s closest allies, so it should not be surprising that her role will be expanded in the next part, which will lead to friends Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet being able to spend some time on screen together.

While the second film will develop some of the characters that have not yet had their greatest moments in this year’s movie, Dune: Part 2 will also bring in some of the iconic characters that were missing from the story so far, including one of the main villains from the book, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. While fans were split as to whether the character would be seen at all, with suggestions that he could be merged with Glossu Rabban, played by Dave Bautista, Villeneuve confirmed in a recent interview that the character will make an appearance in the second part. Played by Sting in David Lynch’s original version of the film, Eternals star Barry Keoghan expressed an interest in playing the role earlier this week and has already said that he is a massive fan of the director’s work. For now though, that piece of casting is something we will have to wait to hear news on when it happens.

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