Noting the success of similarly produced media such as HBO’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and NBC’s ‘Parks and Recreation,’ Denis Villeneuve said “the choice was pretty easy” to veer from Frank Herbert’s beloved science fiction novel and begin a new tale entirely from the minds of the Dune cast.
“Frank Herbert spent what like 6 months creating Chani and Paul Atreides? Zendaya and Timothee have been living these characters for the past four years. If they feel like they should drop the revenge plot against the Harkonnens and spend 2 years having mind-blowing sex in the Sietch while the rest of the Fremen are forced to watch—which they absolutely do—then that is their right as actors,” Denis said. And that’s just one of the many deviations the cast took from the original story.
It’s also been rumored that Timothee concludes the film by improvising a sequence where he becomes so intoxicated from sex that he believes himself to be a “cock god” and unsuccessfully tries to court the great sandworm, Shai-Hulud. Upon returning to the Fremen enclave, Stilgar has to console him by saying, “Not everything can be fucked, Muad’Dib,” over and over as Paul cries himself to sleep. The Fremen begin to worry if he will make it through the night, but, miraculously, Paul survives. He then puts on his stillsuit and walks to the mouth of the cave, takes in the immensity of the Arrakeen desert and says, “I’m gonna fuck that worm you better believe it, uh huh,” and the screen fades to black.
