Warning: the following contains SPOILERS for Dune.
Gurney find his way back to Paul after the Harkonnen attack in Arrakis, Gurney also becomes integral to the fate of the Lady Jessica.
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune reboot faces one of the greatest challenges in modern cinema: adapting Herbert’s dense and complex world onto film. Limited by the time and creative constraints of filmmaking, Villeneuve underwent the painful task of choosing which elements from the book to eschew and which ones to adapt. Considering how Villeneuve plans to make only up to a third Dune movie, which will be based on Herbert’s second book, Dune: Messiah, the sequels could contain key elements from the remaining four books in Herbert’s saga – especially if those elements can resolve the fate of certain main characters.
Dune’s Gurney Halleck, if he returns to Villeneuve’s sequels, could end up as Lady Jessica’s lover in Dune 3. Children of Dune, the third book in Frank Herbert’s six-book saga, suggests that Gurney and Jessica become lovers, but also keep the relationship private to avoid public scrutiny. Villeneuve only currently plans to use Dune and Dune: Messiah as the basis for his trilogy reboot. However, as Villeneuve has taken plenty of liberties with the source material, including giving Chani a major role in Dune 2 despite her minor role in the second half of the first book, Jessica and Gurney’s suggested relationship in Children of Dune could conceivably be explored in Dune 3.
Moreover, Jessica and Gurney’s fate is also tied to the future prosperity of both Caladan and the Harkonnen homeworld of Geidi Prime, where they do reforms as co-rulers later in Children of Dune. Unlike Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, the messiah of Arrakis, Gurney and Jessica’s rule doesn’t result in inter-galactic genocide. Considering how Frank Herbert himself explains that Dune is meant as a warning against the unchecked power of even the most well-meaning messiahs, Gurney and Jessica’s fate is crucial to driving home the key message of the Dune saga.
Dune 2’s success will determine whether or not Villeneuve will get the chance to complete his planned Dune trilogy. And if Dune 3 pushes through, Villeneuve is likely to adapt every element from the source material that provides a satisfying ending for its main characters. Although Children of Dune only suggests that Gurney and Jessica become lovers, Dune 2 or 3 could either hint at or fully explore this unexpected romance.
