Florence Pugh will have a much bigger role in planned Dune Messiah

Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve suggests Florence Pugh would have a much meatier role in his potential adaptation of Dune Messiah.

The Oscar-nominated actress, who most recently caused a stir in Oppenheimer as the Communist Party member Jean Tatlock, plays Shaddam IV the Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe's daughter Princess Irulan in Villeneuve's second Arrakis epic, but her screentime is noticeably limited.

While speaking to Radio Times, the filmmaker teased his vision for Dune Messiah, a trilogy-closer that would bring author Frank Herbert's 1969 lesser-read book to life.

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"I approached [Pugh] saying to her that Irulan will have the same journey from Part Two to the next movie as Chani [had] from Part One to Part Two," said Villeneuve.

"In Part One, we barely touch Chani - she was just, like, a ghost, a dream. She was introduced at the end of Part One and then she became one of the main characters of Part Two, and it will be the same for Irulan."

As for why Pugh was the perfect performer to cast as the Princess, the director went on to label her "one of the best actresses of her generation" before explaining: "One thing that was important for me is that the audience will never perceive Irulan as a victim, and I needed an actress that would be able to convey tremendous amounts of information with no lines and just her eyes."

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Villeneuve publicly broached the subject of Dune Messiah for the first time last summer during an interview with Empire Magazine.

"If I succeed in making a trilogy, that would be the dream," he confessed. "Dune Messiah was written in reaction to the fact that people perceived Paul Atreides as a hero. Which is not what he wanted to do. My adaptation is closer to his idea that it's actually a warning."

Should Dune: Part Two rake in the big bucks at the box office, his dream will come true.

Dune: Part Two is now in cinemas.

Watch: Timothée Chalamet and his Dune: Part Two co-stars chose tea parties over wild nights out