Director Denis Villeneuve confirms Zendaya as the lead in the planned Dune sequel

In the upcoming sequel of Dune, director Denis Villeneuve has confirmed that Zendaya will be playing a pivotal role and her character Chani will lead the forthcoming release, as opposed to Timothee Chalamet’s character as the protagonist in the film.

Dune, which is based on Frank Herbert's novel, will see Timothee Chalamet playing the role of Paul Atreides and Zendaya essaying the role of Chani. In the recent interaction with the Italian magazine, Il Venerdì di Repubblica, the director talked about Chani being the protagonist of the sequel’s storyline. He said he cannot wait to shoot the second part of Dune and to get Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya back together on screen.

Chani Kynes, a member of the Fremen, features prominently in the second half of the novel. She introduces Paul and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) to the ways of the Fremen. Paul has Chani vividly on his mind as he often sees her appear in his prescient visions. The prescient visions seem like a major part of the film as it is also shown in the first trailer released by Warner Bros.

Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac and Javier Bardem will play lead roles in the movie as well. The movie was expected to be released much earlier, but because of the delays caused by the pandemic, it is now postponed to release on September 3 this year in theatres.

Meanwhile, Zendaya also has another major movie that will be released this year - a much-awaited Marvel film, Spider-Man: No Way Home starring Tom Holland in the lead. As per Marvel, the third part of the Spider-Man franchise is all set to be released by the end of this year.

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