Dune: Part 2 criticized for its failure to include Middle Eastern and North African influences that were so prevalent in Frank Herbert's book

Dune: Part Two is easily the biggest movie of the year thus far, and while it's a hit with an overwhelming majority of fans and critics, some are speaking out.

The film is the second half of director Denis Villeneuve's two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi magnum opus, which gives fans a closer look at the Fremen - the desert-dwellers on Arakis - and their way of life. 

The original book - considered one of the best sci-fi novels of all-time - delved deeply into themes prevalent in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) socieites while also commenting on Western imperialism.

Now that the film is out - having earned over $575 million worldwide - many critics are speaking out about the production failing to cast MENA actors while also diminishing the MENA influences from the book.

The first half of the book and the first movie introduces fans to this massive world and the main characters like Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet - who signed a multi-year first-look deal with Warner Bros.), whose family has been chosen to preside over Arakis and the lucrative spice production on the planet.

The second half of the book and the second movie follows Paul and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) as they integrate themselves into the Fremen culture.

Herbert - who passed away in February 1986 at 65 - had said he was influenced by Middle Eastern, North African and Islamic culture.

Such touchstones he drew upon for the Fremen people in his book included the Algerian War for Independence, T.E. Lawrence and the iconic 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia and the Bedouins of the Arabian plateau. 

Still, many critics took issue with the fact that only one MENA actor who was cast as a Fremen - the Swedish-born and Tunisian-raised Souheila Yacoub, who plays Shishakli, a friend to Zendaya's main character Chani.

Earlier this month, Furvah Shah wrote a piece for Cosmopolitan UK mentions that the filmmakers specifically left out a word used frequently in the book - jihad - which literally translates in Arabic to 'struggle' but is now synonymous with acts of terror.

'For me, to leave it out of the script is an intentional choice which shows that creators recognise their influences, yet choose not to highlight them on screen if it didn't serve an aesthetic purpose. Like, Dune can be Muslim, but not too Muslim,' Shah wrote.

She also linked to a 2021 article that mentions Herbert's own book editors asked him to diminish the, 'Muslim flavour' of the book. 

Shah added, 'From the use of beads and prostration in prayers by the Fremen, to the almost-Arabic language, phrases pulled from religious texts and the wearing of veils, it felt like Dune takes a heavy amount of inspiration from Islam, Middle Eastern and North African cultures yet simultaneously erases us from screen.'

Earlier this month, Furvah Shah wrote a piece for Cosmopolitan UK mentions that the filmmakers specifically left out a word used frequently in the book - jihad - which literally translates in Arabic to 'struggle' but is now synonymous with acts of terror.

Serena Rasoul, a casting director and founder of Muslim American Casting, said she was disappointed they didn't cast more MENA actors.

'This was a missed opportunity to honor the region’s rich culture and heritage,' Rasoul said.

Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) Hollywood Bureau director Sue Obeidi said the casting was, puzzling.'

'This feels wrong considering the story’s cultural background, and because of this, the film misses out on accurately showing the diverse world of Dune. It weakens the films’ integrity and cultural impact,' she said. 

Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, founder of MuslimGirl.com, added that there is often a double-standard when it comes to casting Muslim actors.

'One of the big things we hear when it comes to Middle Eastern people getting cast or brown people getting cast is there is not enough talent,' she began.

'Yet there is no hesitation and no challenge for the industry to cast those actors from those backgrounds in the stereotypical roles of being terrorists or the villains. Conveniently, we are at a surplus of Middle Eastern actors when it comes to negative portrayal,' she added.

Thomas Simsarian Dolan, an academic advisor for the MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition, commended Villeneuve for casting Yacoub, though she falls into a, 'native fixer' type of character.

'The native fixer is in on the action, but definitely in a decidedly second-class position, subservient to the colonial power or hero. We know if we have a minority character (person of color, queer, etc.), they will help the hero and then die,' Dolan explains. 

Writer Khaldoun Khelil praised Villeneuve for his understanding and respecting the sci-fi genre, stating the director, 'clearly understands that sci-fi is a wonderful mirror or prism to understand our current time and place.'

'But he has his own agendas. In the case of Dune, Villeneuve is expressing his personal discontent with fanaticism and those who exploit it and this superseded Dune’s other themes in his interpretation… If the Fremen are boiled down to exploited fanatics, it strips them of not only agency but it ignores what they’re really fighting for. They’re fighting for their home. Arrakis. Dune,' Khelil said.

Rasoul added the film, 'did very little to engage MENA actors, artists, consultants, musicians, and linguists. Instead, it continued to mythologize and exotify a Middle Eastern-inspired world. Our stories are good enough, but our people are not.'

As for Villeneuve, he didn't discuss the casting of the Fremen much leading up to Dune: Part 2, though he did discuss it in an interview with The Nerds of Color.

'I tried to be as faithful as possible to the images I had in my mind when I read the book when I was young,' the director began.

'And this idea that the world of the Fremen would be kind of inspired by culture from North Africa and the Middle East — culture that I deeply love by the way, because it’s a very complex world — there was this idea that there was something powerful that will come out from Africa in Frank Herbert’s mind,' he added. 

'And I tried to respect his ideas. Which is why I did the casting the way I did. And I feel truly that I’m right in doing it this way. It feels authentic, it feels honest, and true to the book,' he said.