In Frank Herbert’s “The Desert Planet” the Mentat Thufir Hawat plays a major role, but in “Dune 2” he is not seen at all. How come?
Dune: Thufir Hawat (Source: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson, “Lady Bird”), the Mentat of House Atreides, was only briefly seen in 2021’s “Dune.” This is mainly because an important intrigue from Frank Herbert’s book “The Desert Planet” was not part of the film. In it, the Harkonnen intentionally intercepted a message from the Atreides that made it sound like Lady Jessica was a traitor.
This information was intended to confuse Hawat so much and fuel his distrust of Jessica that he missed who the real traitor was: Doctor Yueh. Even after the Harkonnen attack and the death of Duke Leto, Hawat thinks that Jessica is to blame for her husband’s fate and also sent her own son to his death. In general, Paul and Jessica are believed to be dead by the Harkonnen, which is also discussed in the film.
Since Piter De Vries (David Dastmalchian, “The Suicide Squad”), the Baron’s Mentat, died in Leto’s poison attack, the Baron made Hawat his new Mentat. Nobody trusts nobody here, and rightly so: The Baron suspects that Hawat is making his own plans, which is true, but at the same time he is a capable Mentat whose advice can be useful.
Feyd Rautha also gets advice from Hawat. So there are some exciting intrigues here that would certainly have worked wonderfully in “Dune 2”. But director Denis Villeneuve decided against it – and we have to do without Thufir Hawat.
Too much intrigue Dune 2: The Bene Gesserit control the course of events in the background (Source: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Denis Villeneuve confirmed before the film’s release that Thufir Hawat would not play a role in “Dune 2”. In an interview with Screencrush he explained:
I fell in love with Thufir Hawat. This is a character that I absolutely adore. But I had to make the bold decision to make a Bene Gesserit adaptation and focus the film on this sisterhood. I wish there was more Thufir Hawat. That’s what I would say.
Denis Villeneuve
The focus on the Bene Gesserit may also be explained by the fact that Warner Bros. is working on a series about the sisterhood called Dune: The Prophecy. Since the Bene Gesserit already control events through their actions, additional intrigue by Thufir in the film would probably have been too much of a good thing.
In addition, Denis Villeneuve recently commented that, for him, large images and intense sound play a particularly important role in the cinema. “Dialogue is for theater and television. I remember films not because of a good line, but because of a strong image. I am not interested in dialogue at all. Pure image and sound, that is the power of cinema, but that is something “What you don’t see when you watch movies today,” Villeneuve said, according to The Times.
Many of the puppet masters in the background are certainly exciting – after all, “Game of Thrones” benefited from such power games for many years – but Villeneuve’s opinion on dialogue makes it clear why he wanted to do without Thufir Hawat.
Anyone hoping that Thufir might appear in “Dune 3” will be disappointed: in the novel “The Desert Planet” Thufir kills himself and dies in Paul Atreides’ arms when he refuses to kill Paul. Villeneuve even filmed scenes with Thufir for Dune 2, which presumably also include his death, but since Villeneuve has no interest in extended versions and doesn’t show any cut scenes, we probably never get to see the end of Thufir’s story .
In August 2023, Thufir actor Stephen McKinley Henderson spoke about the filming in the “This Is Purdue” podcast and particularly praised the collaboration with Austin Butler (Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen):
Austin [Butler] was so nice to me because I had a medical emergency while filming and had to leave. When I came back he was playing a character who wasn’t happy with me at all and he was pretty standoffish and I gave him looks, but when they said “cut” he would come over and say, “Mr. Henderson, are “You okay? Can I help you? Can I get you something?” And he was just so nice. And then we went back to filming and he slipped back into character. He took care of me. I really appreciated Austin, a wonderful, wonderful person.
Stephen McKinley Henderson
Dune Quiz: How well do you know your way around the desert planet Arrakis?
(Source: tmdb.org)
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