The director’s affinity for Herbert's original novel is well-chronicled, meaning that this adaptation should appease most readers watching Dune 2. Villeneuve once again did the work to adapt the second half of the book as closely as possible while still fitting within the confines of a nearly 3-hour runtime and building on any already established differences. However, this did mean that Dune 2 changed the book on more than one occasion. Whether it is entire characters missing from the story, character arc changes, or other story details differing, these are the biggest book differences in Dune 2.
Cooper Hood
As I suspected – and dreaded – Dune: Part Two makes several substantial changes to the book, revisions that are inexcusable to me and alter the narrative and characters beyond recognition. As I said before, I refuse to watch this movie in theaters, but from what I’ve read, this is nothing more than weak fanfiction that failed to grasp what drives the main characters and the intricate lore of the book. Then again, Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson worked as creative consultants – and praised the result; what better warning that the movie is disrespecting the original material than attaching these two to it?! I’m aware that commenting on a movie without watching it sounds presumptuous, and what follows is a rather long rant, so feel free to skip it if you don’t care about this topic.