One of the many claims to fame author J.R.R. Tolkien had - you know, on top of creating a vast fantasy universe that is still beloved to this day - is crafting the unique languages that inhabited it. Now, it seems as though Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve took a page from Tolkien’s book when it came to fleshing out the series’ central language, Chakobsa.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Villeneuve opened up about bringing on an experienced linguist, David J. Peterson (who had previously helped develop the Dothraki language for Game of Thrones), to build out the language, which had only been described in the original books. Author Frank Herbert, who wrote the Dune novels, did not index the language in the way Tolkien was known for with Lord of the Rings, which pushed Villeneuve to work with Peterson on “vocabulary and pronunciations that could actually be used by actors.”
“All the actors went to Fremen school!” the Blade Runner 2049 filmmaker told the outlet. “I’m not joking. They took weeks to learn the language and came on set absolutely fluent. There was even a dialect coach on set. Everybody took it so seriously, and I was so moved to see Timothée [Chalamet] give whole speeches in Chakobsa.”
Chalamet was also particularly fond of the time spent filming his highlight speech in the invented language. “Those five days on set, speaking in a language that was conceived for the films, I was just savoring those days,” he told EW. “I wanted to bring justice not just to the arc of Paul, but also to Dune. And I knew that those were the days. Even when we rehearsed that scene, we went all in.”
Dune: Part Two is the second part of a two-part adaptation of Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi epic. It follows Chalamet as Paul Atreides, who joins the Fremen people — natives of the desert planet Arrakis — in their war against central villian House Harkonnen, played by Stellan Skarsgard. Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem also return to their roles from the first film, while Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Léa Seydoux, and Christopher Walken join the ensemble cast for the second installment.
Dune: Part Two arrives in theaters on March 1, 2024.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
