The Fremen in 2021's Denis Villeneuve's Dune, the latest adaptation of the influential 1965 Frank Herbert novel. In Dune, the Fremen are essential to the survival of the main characters.
As the new stewards of Arrakis, the Atreides seek an alliance with the Fremen, whose knowledge of the desert and water-conserving technologies are crucial to surviving on the planet. After it’s revealed that the Padishah Emperor assigned the Atreides to Arrakis just for the Harkonnen to set up a trap, Paul and Jessica flee into the deserts where they meet the Fremen, with whom they find sanctuary. Despite not revealing much else about the Fremen, Dune 2021 is fairly faithful to the Dune books, which means that the origins of the Fremen are likely to be similar to what Frank Herbert envisioned.
Frank Herbert’s Dune books reveal that the Fremen are direct descendants of the nomadic Zensunni Wanderers, a religious group who fled into deep space and stayed on Arrakis to avoid persecution and enslavement by the empire. While it’s unclear when exactly they arrived on Arrakis, it was before the planet was discovered to be the only known source of the spice melange in the universe. This means that the Zensunni Wanderers first settled on Arrakis more than 10,190 years ago, before the Spacing Guild itself was even founded.
As Stilgar tells the Atreides in the Dune reboot, the Fremen have been on the The entire timeline of Dune spans 20,000 years, and the history of the Zensunni Wanderers and the Fremen play a big part in the religious and political evolution of this expansive world, which explains why Dune 2021’s Arrakis is steeped in mysticism.
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is yet to deeply explore the origins of the Fremen. Considering how Villeneuve plans to make two sequels, there’s more than enough time to reveal more about how the Fremen came to be on Arrakis. While the first film was promising, it remains to be seen whether or not the Dune sequels will do justice to the Fremen’s origins.
