Dune 2 stars Zendaya and Florence Pugh talk female empowerment in the sci-fi sequel: "There's huge power there"

Although women played an important role in 2021's sci-fi epic Dune, in this year's sequel Dune: Part Two they take center stage, with the second half of director Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's groundbreaking sci-fi novel placing a greater focus on the female characters. Whilst the first movie arguably has only one three-dimensional female figure in Rebecca Ferguson's Lady Jessica, this time things are different. Take Zendaya's returning character Chani, who has gone from barely any screen time to arguably being the beating heart of the whole story. In fact, director Villeneuve described her as his "secret weapon" when it came to making this chapter, seeing Chani as the key to unlocking this tale and honoring Herbert's original intentions.

However, whilst there are plenty of women on-screen, that's not really what matters. Crucially they are all well-developed and complicated, are the ones driving the story forward, and each character is different from the other. For Zendaya herself, that's what is important when it comes to female representation on-screen. 

She told GamesRadar+: "For me, female empowerment looks like characters that don't all look or feel the same. Characters that are complicated, that you can hate, that you can love, that you can disagree with, that you can feel complicated feelings for. And I think that's what strong characters are, something that you can dig your teeth into, be confused by their decisions, and talk about it later. You wonder: ‘Who's the bad guy? Who's the good guy? Whose side are we on? Is there any such thing?’ That to me, those are powerful characters. And I feel incredibly lucky to be in a film that shows many, many, many, many, many different versions of what that looks like. "

Her co-star Florence Pugh, who portrays the Emperor's daughter Princess Irulan in the movie, nods in agreement during our chat, then praising Villeneuve for championing these women's stories. Speaking to GamesRadar+, she added: "I