Every adaptation puts a spin on the source material. Dune: Part One (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024), by director Denis Villeneuve, are infused with a pro-secular viewpoint to the point that faith is denigrated as foolish, and skepticism is celebrated as heroic. These films could have aligned with Frank Herbert’s science fiction book Dune (1965) and allowed the audience to see the dangers of religion and religious manipulation through the perspective of lead characters Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica. Instead, at the risk of offending faith-based viewers, they push the simplified view that religion and faith are backward and unappealing, especially to enlightened young people. The bigger problem is that, because the key religion in Dune followed by the Fremen is coded as Islamic, the films reinforce an Orientalist perspective that believers are unthinking victims stuck in an irrational belief cycle and that freedom will only come when they embrace a secular outlook. The attempts by Villeneuve to appeal to twenty-first century Western sensibilities while avoiding controversy result in the story sidestepping richness and …