This Is How Weird the ‘Dune’ Sequels Are (Potentially) Going to Get

Niko Tavernise

Dune Part Two director Denis Villeneuve has said he's already begun work on a third Dune movie, based on Dune Messiah, the second of Frank Herbert's six Dune novels. He's also said his next Dune movie will be his last. Which is too bad, because the events of Dune and Dune Messiah are child's play compared to the kind of batshit weirdness that suffuses the following four books of the original cycle—among them invincible human-worm hybrids, psychotic dominatrix nuns, and a hidden colony of space Jews. What can we expect from potential new Dune installments? Let’s run down the five sequels authored by Frank Herbert, starting with the novel Villeneuve is planning to adapt next.

**This story contains major spoilers for Frank Herbert's remaining five Dune books—and, hypothetically, for hypothetical, as-yet-unmade movies based on those books. **

Dune Messiah

Years passed since previous installment: 12

Returning characters from the original films: Paul (Timothée Chalamet), Chani (Zendaya), Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Stilgar (Javier Bardem), Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), Alia (Anya Taylor-Joy), Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa)

Main way to remember this one: It's the one where Paul is given a dwarf servant named Bijaz as a gift from his friend Otheym, but Bijaz is actually a mole who activates the assassin Duncan Idaho clone using coded hums

Plot summary: Romantics will be happy to hear that despite the swerve depicted at the end of Dune: Part Two, Paul and Chani are still romantically involved. But in a twist worthy of a viral Reddit post, a jealous Irulan has been secretly feeding Chani contraceptives to prevent her from bearing Paul an heir. The Bene Gesserit and something called the Bene Tleilax—a kind of religious sect-slash-NGO feared and despised across the galaxy for its experiments in genetic engineering—seek to take advantage of this weakness by giving Paul a "ghola" (essentially, for the purposes of keeping word count down, a clone) of his old friend and swordmaster Duncan Idaho, whom they hope will undermine his confidence and, if necessary, kill Paul. The ghola, who retains none of Idaho's memories, promptly falls in love with Paul's sister Alia, who is physically a teenager and mentally several thousand years old.

Eventually—perhaps after switching to an all-natural, no-seed-oils Fremen diet——Chani does become pregnant. Paul, meanwhile, is blinded by a bomb while putting down a conspiracy; his precognitive abilities allow him to “see,” so long as he sticks to the exact path his visions have shown him. When Chani dies in childbirth, the Idaho ghola attempts to kill Paul, only to regain his memories as Duncan Idaho and desist. As a final Tleilax gambit, a shapeshifting "face dancer" called Scytale holds Chani and Paul's newborn twins, Ghanima and Leto II, hostage, offering Paul a Chani ghola in exchange for abdication—but Paul refuses, a choice that takes him off the path set by his visions and renders him completely sightless. Except that—twist!—he can see through his infant son's eyes, and uses this sight to kill Scytale with a throwing knife.

In the end, Paul decides to follow Fremen tradition and exile himself in the desert. Alia, left as his regent, executes the leadership of the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild, sparing Irulan only when she promises to educate Paul and Chani's twins.

Casting problems: Edric, one of the conspirators against Paul, is a spice-transformed guild navigator described in the book as an "elongated figure, vaguely humanoid with finned feet and hugely fanned membranous hands."

Proportion of this book that can successfully make it to the big screen without a studio executive having a heart attack: Around 80 percent, although they’ll definitely have to lose the part where Paul compares himself to Hitler, whose lethality Paul describes as "pretty good for those days."

Children of Dune

Years passed since previous installment: Nine

Returning characters from the original films: Paul, Jessica, Stilgar, Gurney, Alia, Duncan Idaho

Main way to remember this one: It's the one where Alia becomes possessed by the ancestral consciousness of her dead grandfather Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and starts putting on weight

Plot summary: On Dune, where a new radical religious leader called only "the Preacher" has emerged—wonder who this guy could possibly be!—Alia has become possessed by Baron Harkonnen. She—or, I guess, the Baron—tries to kill Lady Jessica, who flees to the Sardaukar prison planet Salusa Secundus, where Irulan's younger sister Wensicia (one of the great stupid names in a series with no shortage of stupid names) plots against the preadolescent Atreides twins. Jessica and the Bene Gesserit manage to win the loyalty of Wensicia's son, Farad'n, who has been given a Duncan Idaho ghola by "the Preacher."

Meanwhile on Dune, nine-year-old Leto fakes his death in an assassination attempt and flees to the desert, where a Fremen group led by Gurney Halleck forces him to drink the water of life, allowing him to see the "Golden Path" of human flourishing that his father refused to follow. [Ed. note: this is where it gets good.] Swearing to follow this Golden Path, Leto escapes his Fremen captors and covers himself with baby sandworms, becoming in the process an invincible human-worm hybrid. Eventually he finds "the Preacher," who is—you’ve probably already guessed it—Paul Atreides.

Idaho heads back to Arrakis, where he kills Alia's consort and then goads Stilgar into killing him in turn, which turns out to have been a sort of overcomplicated ruse to get Stilgar to break with Alia, who is preparing to wed Ghanima and Farad'n for her own similarly overcomplicated reasons that, frankly, I'm still not really sure I understand. In the end, Paul and Leto crash the wedding, Alia's soldiers kill Paul, and Alia—horrified at the death of her brother and seeking to kill her grandfather-possessor once and for all—jumps to her own death. Leto, the super-worm, declares himself emperor and marries his sister. Don't worry, though—this is only to consolidate power, and Ghanima and Farad'd are set up as consorts to further Leto's eugenics program.

Proportion of this book that can successfully make it to the big screen without a studio executive having a heart attack: 70 percent. In the early stages of the human-worm hybrid, Leto is basically just wearing the worms as a suit, so you'll save on VFX. And think about Anya Taylor-Joy channeling Stellan Skarsgard!

God Emperor of Dune

Years passed since previous installment: 3,500

Returning characters from the original films: Duncan Idaho

Main way to remember this one: It's the one that's half told from the point of view of a totalitarian, prescient, and totally invulnerable worm-emperor who has ruled the galaxy for millennia

Plot summary: Arrakis has been completely terraformed into a forested paradise, with only a small patch of desert from which Emperor Leto II—the last living sandworm, albeit one with a human face—commands his army of female warriors, the Fish Speakers, in order to maintain peace across the galaxy and fulfill the Golden Path. Happily for Jason Momoa, Leto has raised a long succession of Duncan Idaho gholas, who serve as links to the legacy of Leto's father and grandfather, but who also, annoyingly, keep trying to assassinate him.

But don't let anyone say that God Emperor of Dune is all baroque cocaine fantasy and no romance. Leto II falls in love with Hwi Noree, an emissary from the planet Ix, a highly developed world known for creating devices that push the boundaries of the Dune universe's long-standing commandment against “thinking machines.” Hwi agrees to marry Leto—but has an affair with the one, true eternal chad of the Dune universe: Duncan Idaho. Idaho joins forces (and falls in love) with Siona, a young revolutionary (who happens to be a direct descendant of Ghanima and Farad'n) who’s been plotting Leto's assassination. As Leto and Hwi and their entourages pass over a high bridge during the wedding procession, Siona's forces explode the bridge's supports, and the wedding party falls to its death, with Leto disintegrating in the water below.

As he dies, Leto reveals that actually, this was his plan the whole time: In Siona, he has successfully bred a human being invisible to prescience, and she and her descendents will prevent prophets like himself and his father from ruling the galaxy ever again.

How big is this human-worm hybrid, exactly? Leto say he's "about seven meters long and somewhat more than two meters in diameter, ribbed for most of its length, with my Atreides face positioned man-height at one end, the arms and hands (still quite recognizable as human) just below."

Proportion of this book that can successfully make it to the big screen without a studio executive having a heart attack: 40 percent, at best. Even if you can get over the fact that the main character is a five-ton human-worm hybrid, you have to deal with the fact that huge stretches of this book consist of the five-ton human-worm hybrid discussing his personal political philosophy at great length.

Heretics of Dune

Years passed since previous installment: 1,500

Returning characters from the original films: Duncan Idaho. Yes, still.

Main way to remember this one: It's the one that introduces the race of dominatrix nuns who fuck men into enslavement

Plot summary: In the millennium-and-a-half since the death of Leto II, humanity has re-taken to the stars and a new, sexier, bloodier, more evil version of the Bene Gesserit, the Honored Matres, has emerged to conquer the galaxy with the ability to enslave men through supernaturally good sex.

On Arrakis, now called Rakis, sandworms have returned. The Bene Gesserit learn of a girl named Sheeana with the ability to control them, and raise a new Duncan Idaho ghola to win her over to their side. Idaho is placed under the watch of the Bene Gesserit military commander Miles Teg, a distant descendent of the Atreides family, who awakens the ghola's memories. When Teg is captured and tortured by the Bene Tleilax, he becomes prescient and also super-strong, allowing him to escape. Idaho, meanwhile, is captured by an Honored Matre named Murbella, who attempts to sexually enslave him—but in the process they awaken Idaho's latent godlike stroke game, implanted in him by the Bene Tleilax, and he sexually enslaves Murbella instead. (Just need to use a parenthetical to emphasize that this is actually what happens.)

The Honored Matres make a final assault on Rakis and destroy the planet, killing Teg in the process. Idaho, Murbella, Sheeana, and Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Darwi Odrade escape—with a single sandworm they plan to use to turn the Bene Gesserit homeworld into a new Dune.

Proportion of this book that can successfully make it to the big screen without a studio executive having a heart attack: If you're really trying to make a big-screen, PG-13 movie out of this one, you can salvage around 50 percent. If you want to make a pay-cable softcore masterpiece, you can use the whole thing.

Chapterhouse: Dune

Years passed since previous installment: Around 10

Returning characters from the original films: No one! Just kidding: Duncan Idaho.

Main way to remember this one: It's the one with the secret space Jews

Plot summary: As Sheanna slowly terraforms the Bene Gesserit homeworld of Chapterhouse into an Arrakis-like desert planet complete with worms, the Honored Matres are hunting the Bene Gesserit across the galaxy. Miles Teg has been resurrected as a child ghola by our old friend Scytale, the last living Bene Tleilax Master, who is held in protective captivity on Chapterhouse. Murbella and Duncan Idaho are trapped in a sort of S&M Ross-and-Rachel dynamic of sexual obsession and emotional unavailability.

Fleeing the Honored Matres, Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Lucilla lands on Gammu—formerly Giedi Prime, the historical homeworld of the Harkonnens—where she seeks refuge with a community of Jews who have lived in secret since the Butlerian Jihad. Eventually the community's rabbi is forced to turn Lucilla over to the Honored Matres, but before she's captured she passes on the 7.6 million shared Bene Gesserit memories she's carrying to Rebecca, an untrained Revered Mother among the space Jews.

Back on Chapterhouse, in the kind of sci-fi paperback scene you don't see much anymore now that cocaine is less pure, Sheeana ritually rapes the preadolescent Miles Teg ghola in order to activate his past-life memories and turn him into a warrior-Mentat. Teg is given command of Bene Gesserit armies and ordered to lead an attack on the Honored Matres on Gammu, but Darwi Odrade is captured, the Bene Gesserit are lured into a trap, and the army is forced to retreat. After the battle, Murbella lands on Gammu, pretending to be a lost and disoriented Honored Matre who has obtained Bene Gesserit secrets. When she's brought before the leader of the Honored Matres, she kills her, becoming the head of the Honored Matres—and, because Odrade has been killed as well, the Bene Gesserit Mother Superior. Meanwhile, Teg, Duncan Idaho, Sheanna, Scytale, Rebecca, and the rest of the Gammu Jews flee aboard a huge no-ship with some stolen sandworms.

Daniel and Marty: At one point Duncan Idaho has visions of mysterious face dancers named "Daniel" and "Marty," which are just really funny names to give mysterious and powerful observers millions of years in the future.

Proportion of this book that can successfully make it to the big screen without a studio executive having a heart attack: Well, they're going to have to find a different way to awaken Miles Teg's memories, for starters.

But what happens next? Herbert ended Chapterhouse: Dune on a cliffhanger, but never got further than sketched-out notes for a sequel before his death in 1986. His son, Brian Herbert, wrote two more sequels based on those notes with Kevin J. Anderson (as well as a number of prequels). They're less "weird" than "overcomplicated," but if you're still a bit sore about the end of Dune: Part 2 you can credit Herbert and Anderson for ending the entire series with a resurrected Chani and Paul living together on Dune, 5,000 years after the first book.

Originally Appeared on GQ