Dune 2: Here’s why Paul Atreides’ sister could be a problem in the sci-fi sequel

• “Dune 2” doesn’t start with a time warp, but it will show how Paul Atreides and his mother live with the Fremen for several years.
• We also experience how Lady Jessica gives birth to a daughter, Alia, who is endowed with great wisdom. Can the film portray that in a credible way?

“Dune” introduced so many characters from Frank Herbert’s novel “The Desert Planet” in 2021 that director Denis Villeneuve decided against Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, one of Paul Atreides’ greatest opponents, appearing in the first half of the story to permit. With this, Villeneuve deviated from the book, but since Feyd-Rautha actually only becomes important later in the novel, this change was easy to get over.

But “Dune 2” will have another new character to offer in addition to Feyd-Rautha, who is actually even more important than Feyd-Rautha in Frank Herbert’s novels. This is Alia, daughter of Lady Jessica and sister of Paul Atreides.

Alia is not born until Jessica and Paul are already living with the Fremen, but the first trailer for the film does not show Alia or Jessica’s pregnancy. However, Jessica is already pregnant with Alia during the first film, Duke Leto is her father.

The whole thing is complicated by the circumstances of Jessica’s pregnancy. Jessica becomes a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit through a special ritual in which she must drink the Water of Life. This ritual ensures that Jessica has access to the memories of all the Reverend Mothers of the past, making her extremely wise.

However, since Jessica is pregnant with Alia during this time, Alia is also endowed with the memories of the Reverend Mothers already in the womb. Thus, by birth, she is smarter and wiser than almost everyone else.

A large part of the second half of the novel “The Desert Planet” takes place almost 4 years after Alia’s birth, so Alia is a very wise 4-year-old. An interesting concept for a sci-fi novel, but a complicated affair for Dune 2.

Does ‘Dune 2’ simply drop Alia from the plot?

Finding a child actress to play Alia shouldn’t be difficult in Hollywood. However, the audience must also believe that we really are dealing with an extraordinarily intelligent and wise child. So the girl shouldn’t appear smart as a pony and would therefore have to be an experienced actress, which is hardly possible at this age.

Villeneuve could avoid this risk by simply removing Alia from the film. This should annoy fans of the novel, however, and since Villenuve has so far stuck to Frank Herbert’s novel quite closely, this change would probably be too big to just wave it through.

So it would be conceivable that the timing of the film could simply be adjusted a little. We’ll have a time jump anyway, so why not just let Paul and Jessica stay with the Fremen for six or seven years before starting their attack on the Harkonnens? After all, a 7-year-old Alia would be much easier to portray.

Maybe we’ll already see Alia in the next trailer for “Dune 2”, which is expected to await us in late summer 2023. Otherwise we will be smarter by November 2, 2023 at the latest, when “Dune 2” starts in German cinemas.