Movies - TV
Why Denis Villeneuve Axed Thufir From Dune: Part Two
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
In Frank Herbert's futuristic novel "Dune," rich and powerful families hire supernatural assistants called Mentats. The Mentat of House Atreides was a man named Thufir Hawat.
Thufir appears in the original "Dune" but is absent from "Dune: Part Two."
He played a more active role in the second half of Herbet's novel, but in the film, he's merely gone.
According to a recent interview with EW, the decision to axe Thufir was a painful choice by director Denis Villeneuve, as he had decided to make a different kind of story.
"Dune: Part Two" focuses heavily on the Bene Gesserit religious order and their manipulation of the political system. In that story, Mentats like Hawat aren't needed.
"Dune" is a dense novel, and if Villeneuve included every detail from it, his film would run 12 hours. He wasn't happy about the cuts he had to make, but they were necessary.
"Thufir Hawat. [... is] a character I absolutely love, but I decided right at the beginning that I was making a Bene Gesserit adaptation," Villeneuve stated.