Have you seen “Dune 2”, and are you one of the spectators who jumped at this unexpected appearance? You are not the only ones, and that’s why we spoke about it with Denis Villeneuve – SPOILERS WARNING
WARNING – The article below contains spoilers for the second part of “Dune”, as it returns to one of its surprises. So please move on if you haven’t seen it in theaters yet.
No, you’re not dreaming ! If the cast of Dune 2 is even more impressive than that of the first (Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux and Souheila Yacoub join Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya or Rebecca Ferguson), we must also count on another known face, who had not been previously announced.
Except for the people who followed some of the previews of Denis Villeneuve’s film. And in particular that of London, where the feature film self-spoiled by having the main protagonist pose with the rest of the team. Without revealing his role, even if connoisseurs of the work of Frank Herbert already had their own idea.
Because it is indeed Anya Taylor-Joy that we see in this short scene: a flash of the future, similar to the one that showed Paul in golden armor in the first feature film. Future Furiosa, in the spin-off of Mad Max: Fury Road about the character’s youth, the actress plays Alia Atréides. The hero’s sister, with whom Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is pregnant throughout this film.
Awakened to consciousness prematurely when her mother drinks brandy, a variation of Spice, she does not really appear here, unlike in David Lynch’s film in which she took on the features of Alicia Witt. In Denis Villeneuve, the spectator only sees Alia through shots in utero, when she is not a voice speaking to her future brother Paul. Until this unexpected scene.
A teaser of “Dune 3”?
Which functions like the post-credits scenes which have become a tradition at Marvel Studios (except that it intervenes within the story of Dune) and announces that Anya Taylor-Joy will play Alia Atreides in the third film, already mentioned on the side of Denis Villeneuve, where the young woman must play a central role and become “Saint Alia of the knife”.
Was this scene already planned from the start of production, or was it added later, when the hypothesis of an adaptation of the “Messiah of Dune” has become more concrete? “Her character is key in Dune and, a bit like Chani in part 1, we introduce someone who we will develop later“, answers Denis Villeneuve on this subject.
“The character of Alia is a bit like Chani: she’s someone we glimpse and who will take all her place, all her scope, in a third part. But this scene was part of the project from the start, but it evolved during filming.”
He is someone that we glimpse and who will take his full place, all his scope, in a third part
In the biggest secret
In order to keep this cameo in the biggest secret, the director asked for a helping hand from his counterpart George Miller, who was directing Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa at the time the second part of Dune was being filmed. ? “No, but our schedule was made easier by the fact that their filming finished before I approached Anya, and that’s what made it possible.”
As he explains to the Hollywood Reporter, Denis Villeneuve mobilized a small team to shoot this scene in Africa, with the actress. And if this cameo proves one thing, it’s that the director has already started work on the third part of Dune and can no longer hide. Which he confirms to us, with a great burst of laughter.