Dune: Part Two Cast On How Practical Effects Make This Universe More Real Than Ever Before

Dune: Part Two is nearly here and IGN had the chance to sit down with Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Austin Butler, and Dave Bautista to talk all about the much-anticipated sequel that will be released in theaters on March 1, 2024.

From director Denis Villeneuve’s focus on practical sets, props, and effects that brought Arrakis and Giedi Prime to life, to how the war of generations is shaping the universe created by Frank Herbert and much more, this is one chat you won’t want to miss. So, grab your sandworm popcorn bucket and let’s jump right in.

How Dune: Part Two’s Practical Effects Make Arrakis and Giedi Prime RealDenis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part One did what previous adaptations had been unable to: fully immerse audiences in the world of Frank Herbert’s influential sci-fi novels. Denis Villeneuve’s take on Dune makes very few compromises in bringing Paul Atreides’ complex destiny to the big screen, including the incredible blend of practical and Oscar-winning visual effects.

Considering the significantly expanded scope of Dune: Part Two’s plot, those crafted elements of the production were more crucial than ever to help viewers lock into this world of sandworms, shields, and stillsuits… and not just for viewers, but for the cast as well.

Speaking of sandworms, Chalamet shared with us that being in the driver’s seat of the massive creature’s rig was as “violent and […]properly terrifying at times.” However, he also admits it was all worth it in the end.

“We had an entire worm unit dedicated to that sequence in the film,” Chalamet said. “It was like a separate movie going on where the massive resources of this film in that unit were dedicated to getting what’s ultimately a three-minute or four-minute sequence in a movie shot over the course of three to four months with a shot list that covered a giant wall. It was just extraordinary and it couldn’t have been done on a green screen. It would have been such a shame if it had.”

The dedication to the craft extended to all departments, including hair, costume, and wardrobe. For Austin Butler, the three hours he spent in hair and makeup were an integral part of the process of becoming Feyd-Rautha as it “shifts you over and you don’t see yourself in the mirror anymore. You just feel like a different person.”

Florence Pugh, who plays Princess Irulan, echoed the sentiment and said getting ready in costume, hair, and makeup and walking on the practical sets created by the talented crew “transported” the cast to this faraway world and let them become their characters.

For Rebecca Ferguson, wearing Lady Jessica’s attire not only helped her ease into the role, but also was key in defining her character for her.

“Everything you use, everything you see, and your immediate surroundings with this film, is practical.”

“I’m constantly covered in veils,” Ferguson said. “It makes it really heavy and I hide behind it. Jokes aside, I’ve been joking about the hundreds of veils that Denis wanted to put me behind. My ego was just squashed. […]And it also made me feel like I was watching everything behind drapes. And it’s kind of how I identify her.”

Of course, for a story being told on a universal scale, stunts, costumes, and makeup can only get you so far. To make Arrakis and the Harkonnen homeworld, Giedi Prime, feel as real as possible, Villeneuve prioritized shooting on real sets and locations in Dune: Part Two.

“Everything you use, everything you see, and your immediate surroundings with this film, is practical,” Dave Bautista, who plays Rabban of House Harkonnen, said. “It allows you to just be completely immersed and you don’t have to depend on your imagination because everything is just there for you. It just allows you to actually be in that moment and get lost in those scenes.”

“It does something to you,” Stellan Skarsgård said of having practical sets at this scale. “You feel the fascistic architecture and that my buildings would have pleased Hitler or Mussolini. It gives you an enormous feeling.”

Using practical sets and shooting on location also does wonders for the quieter and more beautiful moments of the film.

“There’s like this sweeping shot of us at like five in the morning and it’s the big Paul and Chani kiss and it’s all practical,” Zendaya said. “I remember being on the day like, ‘Whoa, this is real! You don’t need to touch it!’”

Being real has another side to it however, as being in Abu Dhabi in the middle of a desert means you are… well… actually in the middle of a desert and not on a comfortable film set on a lot. For Josh Brolin, that’s all part of the charm.

“I like being out in the middle of the desert. I like it when it’s hard,” Brolin said. “I like it when people are wanting to complain and can’t because nobody will listen. I really liked being in Abu Dhabi. We were really two and a half hours south of Abu Dhabi, surrounded by 100 kilometers of nothing but desert, so even when you weren’t working you just had nothing to work with but desert.

“So you’d climb and you’d hike probably five miles a day and it’s just hard, but I like those things. I like it when I feel like you earn your stay, you know? And I want to make sure that it just feels more gratifying at the end of the day. But there’s something about Denis’ movies, whether it be Sicario, or Dune, or Dune: Part Two, and hopefully more in the future where he loves encasing people in the reality of what is as real as possible.”

Bautista then touched upon something rather fascinating about this topic alongside having Villeneuve in the director’s chair with a story about Rabban’s retreat. While millions upon millions of dollars were spent on making these actors feel as though they were their characters living inside the novels created by Frank Herbert, he never went so far as to let them ignore or lose who they were beyond the cameras.

“I think that is the one moment where you get to see the true essence of who Rabban is,” Bautista said of the retreat. “Most actors might look at that scene and be like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ And I read that scene and I was like, ‘Man, that’s great.’ Because that’s when you get to see the layers of the character and that’s when you get to see who Rabban really is, which is, really, just a coward. He’s a coward, he’s insecure, he’s not very smart and he knows it. And he’s always felt threatened by his younger brother, who’s better than him at everything. And also this is happening to him right in front of the one person that he so desperately seeks approval from.

“In that moment, he’s just crushed, and I think that’s what makes the character interesting. Any big, tough guy could play this big, menacing, ominous brute. But when you add the layers to him, especially in that moment, that’s a performer’s dream. That’s my dream. And that’s what I love, that I have that confidence from Denis where he knows that I could pull off that moment, because it just validates me. I’ve always said that I want to be an actor, I want to be a movie star. And it’s moments like that where I get to say, see, I told you, you know? I get to prove my point.”

The War of GenerationsDune: Part One had a heavy focus on establishing the political intrigue baked into life under Imperium rule, with a specific focus on the rivalry between Houses Atreides and Harkonnen. Part Two sees that rivalry explode into a war that will be decided not by the Barons or Dukes of old, but by the next generation of leaders who find themselves conflicted about which of the old ways to carry forward into the future. While House Atreides is fighting for honor, the villainous Baron Harkonnen is seeking to maintain power, and preference in the eyes of the Emperor.

“Well, he’s realizing he’s getting old and has to find a successor,” Skarsgård says of his character, Baron Harkonnen. “He finds Feyd-Rautha, and of course that’s the most ideal heir he can find. I don’t think he’s interested in sort of the generational thing. He’s very pragmatic. It’s about making the best moves for his genes.”

“Feyd feels in his own way in his own mind and as the chosen one of his group,” Butler added. “He feels more intelligent and more vicious and brutal than almost anyone else that he’s surrounded by. So, I think he he truly feels that he can take the power and make his vision come to life. And then we have Paul.”

“Who I think is perhaps more torn between two fates or two desires,” Chalamet continued. “One is to assimilate amongst the Fremen and live as normal and cooperative an existence with the Fremen as possible as an outsider. The other is someone coming from personal tragedy and a sort of greater calling that puts them on a path of being a leader in many ways. At the same time, he sees through the so-called benefits that come with that just to the other side of treachery and death and destruction and sort of the rare, conflicted figure that comes into power and is extremely weary of it and reluctant at first. But necessity calls at some point and I think he’s sort of pulled between these two polarities.”

With that, it can be very tough to maintain the core of who Paul is at the end of the day. Chalamet agrees and mentions, “Should we be so lucky to make a third one, that’s even more complicated.”

Zendaya then went on to praise Villeneuve and how he “carved out the divide between the younger generation and the older generation, of Chani and Stilgar and how they view this prophecy, and Paul, and all of it.”

“It was wonderful because it allowed also for their love story to be even more challenging and conflicting and difficult for her to accept because she doesn’t believe in him anyway,” Zendaya said of Chani’s relationship with Paul. “Not only does she not believe she thinks it’s harmful and dangerous. So she’s already coming into this against him and something in her heart… somehow… love starts forming. And I think that becomes a very challenging thing for her to accept.”

Paul’s journey from boy to messiah may have passed the point of no return after the Harkonnen slaughter of House Atreides, but it started long, long before that. The mysterious and powerful sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit has spent centuries influencing the bloodlines of the great houses to bring about their faded icon – the Kwisatz Haderach – a being believed to be capable of transcending time and space to bring about a better future, or at least a future the Bene Gesserit prefer.

Dune: Part 2 Character Posters“It’s life, isn’t it?” Ferguson says. “It’s kind of what we constantly battle with. […]If you read the book, it’s the drops of O Harrington’s Through the Sisterhood that has been planted all over physically, not just in our heritage in us, but actually physically. There are things that have been there for hundreds of years that trickle down into the knowledge of the trained eye of a Bene Gesserit. And I love all of that, you know, taking all of that into consideration builds so much more power to the cathedral of her identity.”

The mysterious Bene Gesserit sisterhood wields influence at the highest levels of the Imperium, and that includes over Florence Pugh’s character, Princess Irulan, who has been brought up in their ways. She uses that powerful perspective to stay one step ahead of the exploding conflict at the heart of Dune: Part Two, even while beginning the story on the back foot.

“I think Princess Irulan is almost straight away trying to play catch up – catch up with information that maybe she’s been kept from to protect her or just to protect that secret,” Pugh said. “But she’s definitely smart enough, wise enough, cunning enough to be on the tails of what’s going on. And she calls it. And I think her reality is in some ways she’s kind of preparing herself for the thing that she’s supposed to be preparing herself for. But furthermore, more so than her father is probably ready for her to.

“I think she’s she’s kind of already making herself the adult in the room without people really being aware that she’s doing so. So, I think she’s probably lending herself to the older generation a lot sooner than maybe everybody around her is prepared for, which you kind of see in the end, you see that she’s clocked everything all along and she’s been preparing herself whilst also being very mindful that she’s been played.”

In our Dune: Part Two review, we said the film “expands the legend of Paul Atreides in spectacular fashion, and the war for Arrakis is an arresting, mystical ride at nearly every turn. Denis Villeneuve fully trusts his audience to buy into Dune’s increasingly dense mythology, constructing Part Two as an assault on the senses that succeeds in turning a sprawling saga into an easily digestible, dazzling epic. Though the deep world-building sometimes comes at the cost of fleshing out newer characters, the totality of Dune: Part Two’s transportive power is undeniable.”

For more, check out why Feyd-Rautha is Paul’s worst nightmare, Villeneuve’s comments on where in the series he will stop the Dune movies and our explainer of the ending of Dune: Part One so you can be all caught up for this next chapter.

Some quotes have been truncated or edited for clarity.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.