Dune 2020 has an embarrassment of stars—How well do they match their roles?

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 21: Zendaya attends the Fifth Annual InStyle Awards at The Getty Center on October 21, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for InStyle)

Zendaya as Chani

Chani is a fierce Freman warrior who falls in love with Paul Atreides. The Fremen are the indigenous people of Arrakis, a desert-dwelling people Paul and his mother befriend. Although Paul and Chani are deeply in love, because of his status, Paul cannot officially marry her, so by the end of the first Dune novel, Chani’s title is Imperial Concubine. Their love closely echoes that of Paul’s mother and father.

In the books, Chani is the powerful woman helping guide the powerful man from behind the scenes. She refuses to play second fiddle to the woman Paul is eventually forced to marry, and she can more than hold her own in a fight.

If you’ve watched any of Zandaya’s recent work — Spider-Man, Euphoria — you know she is more than capable of playing a leading lady in a big-budget Hollywood movie. If Dune is faithful to the books, she’ll get a lot of screentime, and we can’t wait to see what she does with it.