The Greatest Sci-Fi Trilogy of the 2020's Is Officially Switching Main Characters

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 Part Two. Image via Warner Bros.

Published Sep 27, 2026, 8:18 AM EDT

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Carolyn Jenkins is a voracious consumer of film and television. She graduated from Long Island University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Producing where she learned the art of character, plot, and structure. The best teacher is absorbing media and she spends her time reading about different worlds from teen angst to the universe of Stephen King.

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In just a few short months, viewers will see the conclusion of the best sci-fi trilogy to date. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune was once thought to be unadaptable, though many had tried. The Arrival director took the dense and complex tome by Frank Herbert and translated it into a larger-than-life epic that doesn’t lag for a second. After two immaculate films, Dune: Part Three will say goodbye to one of the most misunderstood characters in media: Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides (Timothée Chalamet).

Paul is the archetype that gave birth to many sci-fi heroes, but that is where the big myth about the Lisan al-Gaib lives. Paul is not a hero to be admired. He is a cautionary tale about the dangers of too much power. This idea was hinted at the end of Dune: Part Two, when Paul schemes his way into being the Emperor of the Imperium. Such things are not very heroic. The Dune sequel ends on Paul’s declaration to lead anyone who opposes him “to paradise,” which is a nice way of framing genocide. Paul is not the main character, but the villain, while the true protagonist of the Dune saga is hiding in plain sight.

Chani is the True Hero of Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’

Paul has driven the narrative with his vision of destroying the Harkonnens after everything they had done to his family. However, the true main character of Dune is Chani (Zendaya), who asserts herself as such in the sequel. Hesitant to fall for the outsider from another planet, Chani goes against her better judgment when she enters into a relationship with Paul. She is bitterly betrayed when Muad’Dib takes control of the Fremen when he promised that he wouldn’t.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

01

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

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03

What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.

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04

How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

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05

Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.

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06

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

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07

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.

AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

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08

What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.

  • You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
  • You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
  • You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
  • The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.

  • You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
  • You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
  • You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
  • In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Blade Runner

You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

  • You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
  • In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
  • You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
  • In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

  • Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
  • You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
  • Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
  • In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.

  • You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
  • You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
  • You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
  • In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Chani defines herself not by her connection to Paul but by her status as a freedom fighter. If anything, Dune: Part Two is really the story of how a young woman never gives up her ideals while the person she loved the most becomes a stranger. The Dune sequel declares that Chani is the actual main character of the story, even if that story is a tragedy.

This is the perfect way to structure the narrative and ensure that Frank Herbert’s original intention for Paul is not misread. Now Dune: Part Three can go full steam ahead with Paul’s crimes as established in the book. Dune: Messiah does not mince words when it comes to the Kwisatz Haderach. Under Paul’s orders, billions of planets are sterilized in a genocidal war.

Chani maintains her values and, if the Dune: Part Three trailer is any indication, will continue to do so. This is a definitive change from the book, but one that is widely accepted, even by long-time fans of the series. Propping Chani up as the main character is an inspired way to keep the core themes of the story while elevating its female characters.

Chani is a Vast Improvement From Her Book Counterpart

Frank Herbert wrote some compelling female characters in the form of Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), but Chani is another story. In the book, she has no real character arc and essentially only serves as the love interest. Unlike her characterization in the movie, Chani is a true believer in the Lisan al-Gaib. Closer to how Stilgar (Javier Bardem) is portrayed in the film, Chani never questions Paul and supports his rise to power.

Denis Villeneuve takes a one-dimensional character and gives her conflict and ideals worth defending. The biggest deviations from the book occur at the end of Dune: Part Two when she abandons Paul as he takes power. Her book counterpart accepts her role as his concubine in the romantic notion that she will be considered his real wife despite his political marriage with Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh).

This change was so huge that it was shocking, but it made Chani the real protagonist of the story. Though she can’t shut off her love for Paul, she makes the hard decision to leave him after everything that he’s done. This leaves her future up in the air for book readers who now have no way of predicting her trajectory going into Dune: Part Three.

Even so, this sets her up as the real main character of the series. Chani features prominently in the footage for the upcoming film as a battle-hardened warrior 17 years after Paul triumphs over the Harkonnens. When casting Zendaya in a project, the material has to support her indisputable talent. Chani’s characterization delivers on that front and has provided a protagonist to showcase the actor’s scene-stealing power.

dune-3-poster.jpg

Release Date December 18, 2026

Director Denis Villeneuve

Writers Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, Frank Herbert

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