As far as the franchise goes, there are some familiar faces in Dune: Part Three and a few new ones, but Anya Taylor-Joy arguably exists somewhere in the middle. The actress is featured in Dune: Part Two making her debut as Alia Atreides, but she is only in the film very briefly as part of a dream sequence. Naturally, fans have been excited to learn more about the character ever since (especially those who haven’t read the books), and those same people should be quite enthralled and fascinated by her latest comments about the role’s intensity.
Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending a special early preview of the Dune: Part Three trailer in Los Angeles, and in addition to the event featuring a big screen look at the teaser, there was also a moderated Q&A with writer/director Denis Villeneuve and stars Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Robert Pattinson and Anya Taylor-Joy. Asked about the new character poster that features her screaming face covered in blood, she was asked about her part in the film, and she explained it thusly:
Alia has a very intense blessing curse situation. She carries the weight and the wisdom of generations and generations in her head. She's never in a singular conversation. It's kind of all, everything everywhere all at once. And the one thing that she really feels most strongly about is her love and devotion to her brother, because that is the only person who's ever made her feel like she makes sense. He's understood her from before she was even born, and she will do anything for him to various degrees of insanity.
For those who need the refresher, Alia is not a normal person. Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica being pregnant when she went through the ritual to become a Reverend Mother in Dune: Part Two resulted in the in-utero fetus being enhanced with all the memories of past Reverend Mothers (which is why she was able to hold conversations with her mother before she was ever born). In the books, she is shunned by many as a freak and an abomination because of the skills and knowledge she possesses way beyond her years, but one person who is always there for her – because he shares her strange perception of time and reality – is her brother, Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides.
From Anya Taylor-Joy’s description, and understanding Denis Villeneuve’s deep passion for the source material (Frank Herbert’s Dune: Messiah), I have every bit of faith that the movie will deliver a special and faithful incarnation of Alia… but I do still have a question that pertains to a bit of math. Specifically, we have been told that Dune: Part Three takes place 17 years after the end of Dune: Part Two, which means that Alia is only 17 years old, and, with no offense intended in the slightest, Taylor-Joy can’t really pass for a high schooler at this point in her career.
Challenged to come up with a no-prize answer, I imagine the explanation is that the Water of Life that Jessica drank resulted in Alia’s physiology changing in addition to her mind, but I’m nonetheless curious if it’s a subject that the movie will address or just leave up for audience interpretation.
For now, it’s one of the many unanswered questions we have about Dune: Part Three, and fans around the world are salivating in anticipation of answers – particularly after that outstanding teaser trailer. We now have just a little over nine months until the epic blockbuster and trilogy conclusion arrives in theaters, as it is set to arrive in cinemas globally on December 18.
