Before delving into the latest rumored leaks that indicate the Dune 2020 remake has solidified itself as woke, I must stress that what follows is based on insider sources as relayed to Midnight’s Edge. This information cannot be independently verified, so while Midnight’s Edge has a good track record this should still be regarded with a grain of salt, until further confirmation is available.
Personally I believe as Disney did with Rise of Skywalker, they are leaking information in the hope to either mitigate or judge the level of backlash they are about to receive from their decisions before officially announcing them. That though is my personal take away from this.
Addressing the major issue of Midnight’s Edge’s insistence that because the changes are reported to appear organic they are not woke, it must be said that assumption is fundamentally wrong. Unlike SJWs and Progressives who evaluate everything through an emotional lens, the anti-wokeness audience evaluates things through an objective lens.
How well implemented the wokeness is does have an impact in how tolerable it is, but it does not erase the objective existence of the wokeness itself. In this movies case its Mad Max Fury Road-style female focus alongside gender and race swapping Liet-Kyne’s for a black woman.
Those unfamiliar with how Mad Max Fury Road implemented its feminist agenda it did so rather tactfully. Rather than make all the male characters dumb, stupid, inept they kept them competent but relegated them to the background. Mad Max essentially was an extra in a Furiosa movie.
Similarly Dune 2020 — while featuring a strong male lead as in the books — they will take a backseat to the women of the Bene Gesserit. Reportedly this allows Legendary Pictures to easily set up their female focused Sisterhood of the Dune Television Spinoff. Though in practice it is just utilizing male characters to drive what would otherwise be an unpopular and in low demand television show.
By itself this wouldn’t be a strong indicator that the movie is bad or even ruin the movie. If the women are all capable actresses with a great script the movie should be entertaining. What indicates this is very far from the case is the gender and race swapping of Liet-Kynes into a black woman.
Despite Kynes hailing from the Fremen, a highly patriarchal society that puts a heavy emphasis on water followed by strength. Strength that would outright eliminate any females without significant modifications, from the contender pool for leadership.
Make no mistake the message is fairly clear. A woman now controls a strength based high patriarchal society. In conditions that would eliminate any tribe that would dare undertake such measures.
Some comments began to rightfully ask a very simple question: “Why hasn’t the gender and racial swapped character been announced yet?” Simple answer to that is the studio knows thanks to the backlash and failure of several other high profile projects this movie will come under severe backlash and be written off by millions the moment they announce they pulled this stunt.
Keep in mind this decision was likely made in 2017 when the production of the movie began. This was before the fall of Star Wars for gender politics, before this year’s major flops in Terminator, and Charlie’s Angels in cinema, and Batwoman in television.
The largest problem they’re about to face is they have no defense.
Dune is not a major franchise by any stretch of the imagination. It has a dedicated fan base who will be split by this decision, but beyond them there is no legion of movie goers that will line up to see this because it has the Dune name. Any hope of garnering crossover support from the science fiction genre was knee capped when they chose Denis Villeneuve to direct. As the director is very divisive with some loving him and others outright hating him especially after what he did to Bladerunner 2049.
They can’t call those that are rightfully going to be irked by the design choice the usual “racist”, “misogynist”, “bigoted Russian Bots”. If it didn’t work for Terminator, Star Wars, and Ghostbusters, they know at this point its not going to work for them. Then they’ll have not just a movie failing, but the start of their feminist show be equally dead on arrival, adding two names to the Get Woke Go Broke Master List.