10 biggest book-to-screen changes in Dune: Part Two

5. Thufir Hawat

Dune: Part Two removed an important scene involving Gurney Halleck and Lady Jessica. It removed the character of Thufir Hawat altogether.

Thufir is a mentat, essentially a human computer, in service to House Atreides. Thufir was around in the first movie, where he was played by Stephen McKinley Henderson. We don't know what happened to him after the Harkonnen attack at the end of the movie. Since he doesn't show up in Dune: Part Two, I guess we can assume that he died.

After the fall of House Atreides, the Harkonnens force Thufir Hawat to work for them. The baron wishes to make use of Hawat's famous expertise as well as replace his own mentat Piter de Vries, who is killed by Duke Leto. To ensure his loyalty, the Harkonnens introduce a poison into Thufir's blood for which only they have the antitode. Thufir works for the familiy for years, but subtly tries to take them down from the inside by, for example, pitting the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen against his heir apparent Feyd-Rautha.

Thufit Hawat is present when Paul defeats the assembled forces of Emperor Shaddam IV and Baron Harkonnen at the end of the story. Hawat is overjoyed to see that Paul Atreides, son of his old master, is alive, but horrified to learn that Paul is Maud'dib, the same Fremen leader that Hawat has been helping the Harkonnens fight for years. The emperor arms Thufir with a poisoned needle, intending for him to get close to Paul and assassinate him. But Thufir refuses to do it, revealing the plot to the whole and dying having redeemed himself.

All of this is cut from Dune: Part Two, I guess because it was just too much to fit in. It's too bad because Thufir has a pretty good story, but you can't have everything.