List of Dune characters
Dune is a science fiction media franchise that originated with the 1965 novel of the same name by American author Frank Herbert. Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history, and won the 1966 Hugo Award as well as the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Herbert wrote five sequels before his death in 1986: Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune.
Dune follows Paul, the scion of House Atreides, as his family is thrown into the dangerous political intrigues centered on the desert planet Arrakis, only known source of the oracular spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The series spans 5,000 years, focusing on Paul and then his various descendants.
Dune was adapted as a 1984 film, and again in two parts, the films Dune and Dune: Part Two. Additionally, the novel was adapted as a 2000 television miniseries, Frank Herbert's Dune, and the first two sequels were also adapted as a single miniseries, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, in 2003.
Since 1999, Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert and science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson have published 15 prequel novels, collected in the series Prelude to Dune, Legends of Dune, Heroes of Dune, Great Schools of Dune, and The Caladan Trilogy. They have also released two sequel novels—Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune —which complete the original series.
Overview
Introduced in ''Dune'' (1965)
Paul Atreides
In Dune, Paul is the son and heir of Duke [|Leto Atreides] and Lady Jessica, whose family is thrown into the dangerous political intrigues centered on the inhospitable desert planet Arrakis, only known source of the oracular spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. Paul has been trained by his father and several Atreides attendants in fighting and the art of war, and by his mother in some of her Bene Gesserit disciplines. Paul also possesses burgeoning prescient abilities, which are further unlocked by the inescapable exposure to melange on Arrakis. House Atreides is soon betrayed and scattered, with Leto killed, his forces devastated, and Paul and Jessica forced to flee into the open desert. They are taken in by the native Fremen, a secretive population of fierce fighters who thrive despite the scarcity of water and presence of aggressive, giant sandworms. Paul rises to lead the planetwide Fremen forces against the Imperial stranglehold over Arrakis, ultimately seizing control of the planet and deposing Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. In Dune Messiah, Paul's empire is challenged by the conspiracies of various factions hoping to destroy him, while a jihad in his name rages across the universe. After he is blinded by a devastating weapon known as a stone burner, Paul exiles himself into the desert, per Fremen custom. Paul returns under the guise of "The Preacher" in Children of Dune, rallying against the Fremen religion and the jihad raging in his name. The Preacher is ultimately assassinated by one of Alia's guards after calling her a blasphemer.Paul is portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan in the 1984 film adaptation Dune, and by Alec Newman in the 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its 2003 sequel, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. The character is played by Timothée Chalamet in the 2021 film Dune and its sequel, Dune: Part Two.
Lady Jessica
In Dune, Lady Jessica is the concubine of Duke Leto and the mother of his son Paul and daughter Alia. Jessica is one of the Bene Gesserit, a secretive, matriarchal order who achieve superhuman abilities through physical and mental conditioning and the use of the drug melange. Instructed by the Bene Gesserit to first conceive a daughter with Leto to further the order's centuries-long breeding program, she disobeyed out of love for Leto, and gave him a son. This seemingly minor misstep puts the Atreides bloodline on a collision course with events that will ultimately change the fate of the universe. Pregnant with Alia, Jessica flees into the desert with Paul as House Atreides is all but destroyed by the forces of the wicked Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Finding refuge with the native Fremen, she and Paul take advantage of the legends planted there by Bene Gesserit religious engineering, casting themselves as the prophesied messiah and his mother. Jessica undergoes the Fremen version of the Bene Gesserit spice agony ritual, becoming a Reverend Mother and unlocking Other Memory, the personas and memories of all her female ancestors. But doing so while pregnant subjects the unborn Alia to an onslaught of heightened awareness for which her fragile consciousness is not prepared. Jessica returns to Arrakis in Children of Dune and recognizes that Alia, who serves as regent for Paul and Chani's twin children, Leto II and [|Ghanima], has succumbed to the dangers of her unique birth and become possessed. Jessica escapes an assassination attempt by Alia, and trains Farad'n, the grandson of Shaddam IV, in the Bene Gesserit way.Lady Jessica is portrayed by Francesca Annis in the 1984 film. Saskia Reeves plays the role in the 2000 miniseries, and is succeeded by Alice Krige in its 2003 sequel. Rebecca Ferguson portrays Jessica in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.
Leto I Atreides
Duke Leto Atreides is the planetary governor of the ocean planet Caladan who takes over the lucrative spice mining operations on the desert planet Arrakis at the behest of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. Knowing it is some kind of trap but unable to refuse the assignment, Leto proactively seeks an alliance with the native Fremen, people tempered by the planet's harsh conditions who Leto realizes are an underestimated and untapped resource. He is accompanied to Arrakis by his Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, with whom he is in love but has not married to allow for the possibility of a politically advantageous marriage, and his son and heir, Paul. Threatened by Leto's growing influence among the Landsraad assembly of noble families, Shaddam has aligned himself with Leto's enemy, the Baron Harkonnen. The Harkonnens, secretly bolstered by Shaddam's fierce Sardaukar warriors and aided by Leto's own personal physician, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, launch an attack that devastates the Atreides forces. Leto is taken prisoner by the Baron, and dies attempting to kill him.The character has been described as "regal and doomed", and "warmly protective but all-too-vulnerable".
Leto is portrayed by Jürgen Prochnow in the 1984 film. Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant called Prochnow "mesmerizing" in the role, with "a commanding screen presence" that "brought slightly more grit" than subsequent portrayals. William Hurt plays Leto in the 2000 miniseries. Hurt was the first actor to be cast in the 2000 adaptation. A fan of the novel, he told The New York Times, "I was a science fiction junkie... captured Herbert's prophetic reflection of our own age, where nation-states are competing with the new global economy and its corporate elements." Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com wrote that Hurt "brings a certain reserved calm that works for the character." Leto is portrayed by Oscar Isaac in the 2021 film. Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge wrote, "Isaac exudes a sense of righteous honor, and it’s easy to see both why his men would follow him to a forsaken desert world and why he falls so thoroughly into the political traps."
In 2020, Funko produced a Duke Leto figure as part of their POP! Television line. It is a vinyl figure in the Japanese chibi style, depicting Leto in armor and styled after the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film. Aug Toys also released a 1/6 scale, 30 cm tall figurine of the Isaac version of Leto. In February 2024, a Lego Dune playset based on the Atreides ornithopter from the 2021 Dune film was released, containing a Leto Atreides Lego minifigure.
Leto is also a primary character in the prequel trilogies Prelude to Dune and The Caladan Trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Prelude to Dune, young Leto's mother, Helena, arranges for his father, expert bullfighter Duke Paulus Atreides, to be killed by a drugged Salusan bull so she can rule Caladan as Leto's regent. He exiles his mother to a distant convent to avoid the scandal of a public execution, and as duke takes Kailea Vernius of the industrial planet Ix as his concubine. They have a son, Victor, but grow apart, and Kailea's resentment and insecurities build. Threatened by Leto's attraction to the Bene Gesserit acolyte Jessica, Kailea attempts to kill him, but in the ensuing accident her brother Rhombur is critically injured and Victor is killed. Kailea commits suicide, and Leto takes Jessica as his concubine. Though instructed by the Bene Gesserit to bear the mourning Leto a daughter, Jessica intentionally conceives the son he desires, Paul. Leto surrounds himself with loyal and capable individuals, and comes to be known as an effective politician, a fair and just statesman, and a capable leader of his small military. The new Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV, both admires Leto and dislikes him as a political rival. Leto's military victory over the Tleilaxu forces occupying Ix, and his role in the subsequent political censure of Shaddam, ensure Leto a vengeful enemy in the emperor.
Vladimir Harkonnen
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the ruthless and cunning head of House Harkonnen, centuries-old enemies of House Atreides. The Baron's intent to exterminate the Atreides line seems close to fruition as Duke Leto is lured to Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the lucrative spice mining operation there, previously controlled by the Harkonnens. The Baron has coerced Leto's own physician, the trusted Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, to be his agent in the Atreides household. Yueh disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace and the Harkonnen forces attack. Yueh gives a captive Leto the means to assassinate the Baron, who survives the attempt as Leto dies. Escaping into the desert and later presumed dead, Leto's son Paul reveals to his mother, Lady Jessica, that the Baron is her father. The Baron's succession plan is to install his charismatic yet deadly younger nephew, Feyd-Rautha, as ruler of Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by his brutish elder nephew, Glossu Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the savior of the people. A crisis on Arrakis begins when the mysterious Muad'Dib emerges as a leader of the native Fremen tribes, uniting them against Harkonnen rule. Eventually, a series of Fremen victories against Rabban threaten to disrupt the trade of the spice, attracting the attention of Shaddam IV himself. The emperor arrives on Arrakis with several legions of his Sardaukar, and he and the Baron are shocked to discover that the Fremen warlord Muad'Dib is actually Paul Atreides. The Fremen, previously underestimated by the Harkonnens, overcome the Imperial and Harkonnen forces thanks to Paul's military strategy, their own ferocity and their ability to use sandstorms and the giant sandworms of Arrakis to their advantage. Paul's sister Alia, four years old but born a fully aware Fremen Reverend Mother, reveals to the Baron that he is her grandfather before she kills him with a poisoned needle called a gom jabbar.In Children of Dune, Alia succumbs to the dangers of her unique birth and is possessed by the persona of the deceased Baron Harkonnen. As he promises his assistance in quelling the multitude of other ancestral voices assailing her, Alia gradually relinquishes control of herself to the Baron, and descends into depravity and a lust for power sure to destroy the Atreides empire from within. Eventually realizing that the Baron's consciousness has surpassed her abilities to contain him, Alia commits suicide, killing the Baron in the process.
Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Kenneth McMillan in the 1984 film, and by Ian McNeice in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. Stellan Skarsgård portrays the character in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.