One of Dune: Part Two’s biggest book omissions creates a major challenge for Dune 3, tasking Denis Villeneuve with introducing a key plot element.

One of Dune: Part Two‘s biggest book omissions creates a major challenge for Dune 3, tasking visionary filmmaker Denis Villeneuve with introducing a key plot element late in the game. An all-time sci-fi masterpiece, Dune 2 is the follow-up to Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune: Part One, which saw Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his parents, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) and the Bene Gesserit agent Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), heading to the desert planet of Arrakis. Previously, House Harkonnen had been granted stewardship over Arrakis by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV (Christopher Walken).

Although the Emperor bestows House Atreides with the opportunity to oversee spice harvesting and production on Arrakis, it’s actually a ploy that underscores the tangled politics of Dune‘s houses and factions. The Corrino Empire works with the Harkonnens to dispose of House Atreides, though Paul and Jessica manage to escape the massacre. Taking refuge in the deep desert, Paul and Jessica ally themselves with the indigenous Fremen people. In Dune 2, Paul, the Bene Gesserit’s foretold Kwisatz Haderach and Fremen messiah, leads his followers against their shared enemies, allowing Paul to both liberate Arrakis and claim the Imperial throne.

The Guild Is Left Out Of Dune 2 Despite Its Pivotal Book Role

In Dune 2‘s ending, Paul Atreides’ endgame is made clear: he seizes control of Arrakis, forges the Atreides Empire, and becomes the most powerful leader in the Known Universe. Although he knows becoming the Fremen messiah will unleash a bloody holy war, Paul ultimately chooses the path of the Kwisatz Haderach. While Paul’s political moves and manipulations are about much more than controlling spice production by the end of the sequel, it remains to be seen how Villeneuve will end the character’s story in Dune 3, especially since Dune 2 cut a key faction: the Spacing Guild.

The spice allows the Spacing Guild to fold space, allowing for safe and instantaneous interstellar travel.

Also known as the Guild of Navigators, the Spacing Guild is an interstellar shipping and trade conglomerate. The Spacing Guild plays a prominent role in galactic politics during the reign of the Corrino Empire. In fact, the Guild’s monopoly on faster-than-light space travel, transport, and interstellar banking allows it to wield power equivalent to the Imperium and the Great Houses. Like the Bene Gesserit order, the Guild established its own mental-physical training school, though its members’ abilities are not as influential. Still, the Guild’s Navigators become “bothered about the future” when they realize Paul’s impending destiny.

Dune 3 Now Has The Challenge Of Introducing The Guild For A Proper Adaptation

A few years after seeing the problem of Paul on the horizon, the Guild attempts to use what power it does have to turn the tides against the Fremen messiah. By lowering its price, the Guild allows the armies of all the Great Houses to travel with the Emperor Shaddam IV and stand against Paul and his followers, Dune‘s Fremen society. Realizing the Great Houses are not receptive to him, Paul threatens to destroy all spice production. While the Navigators’ prophetic abilities aren’t super refined, they yield because they know Paul is actually capable of upending the universe.

From the movie’s start, the Spacing Guild even plays a crucial role in David Lynch’s Dune (1984) adaptation.

In Herbert’s sequel, Dune Messiah, Paul checks the Guild’s power, which is something the previous emperor never dared to try. By controlling the spice melange — the psychedelic drug that also happens to make safe and accurate interstellar travel possible — Paul effectively controls the Guild. As Herbert’s novel notes, “He who controls the spice controls the universe,” something Paul proves completely. Since Villeneuve decided to cut the Guild’s Dune role from his two-part saga, the director is now in the challenging position of introducing the Spacing Guild, and showing just how crucial the group is, in Dune 3.

The Guild’s Role In Dune 3 Means Making The Guild Navigators Work

In many ways, Dune 3 is more important than part two of Villeneuve’s trilogy. For starters, the third installment, which will adapt Dune Messiah, will depict the fallout of Paul’s choices. With the Spacing Guild playing such a crucial role in the political and economic structures of the Known Universe (and, formerly, the Corrino Empire), it’s strange that the group wasn’t at least teased in Villeneuve’s pre-existing Dune movies. Translating Herbert’s novels to the screen is no easy task, but a late-in-the-game introduction risks diminishing the Spacing Guild’s overall importance in the Dune universe.