Honestly, walking into the theater for Dune: Part Two, you’d be forgiven for thinking Florence Pugh was going to be the centerpiece of the whole three-hour epic. Her face was everywhere. The posters, the trailers, the late-night talk show circuit—it felt like the Irulan Show. Then the movie starts, and you realize she’s barely in the first half.
She's basically a ghost in the machine for a while.
Pugh plays Princess Irulan Corrino, the eldest daughter of Emperor Shaddam IV (played by a wonderfully weary Christopher Walken). If you’ve read Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, you know Irulan is technically the narrator, yet she barely appears in the actual "present day" plot until the very end. Denis Villeneuve keeps that vibe but gives her a pulse.
What Most People Get Wrong About Irulan’s Role
A lot of fans walked out of the cinema feeling a bit cheated. They saw Zendaya’s Chani get a massive, meaty expansion in Part Two and expected the same for Pugh. Instead, we got a character who spends a lot of time in brutalist gardens recording audio diaries into a little floating device.
📖 Related: David Lee Roth Tour: Why Diamond Dave Refuses to Stay Retired
But here’s the thing: her lack of "action" is exactly the point.
Villeneuve has been pretty vocal about this. He told Radio Times that he approached Pugh with a specific pitch. He told her that Irulan would have the same "ghost-to-protagonist" pipeline that Chani had. In the first Dune, Zendaya was basically a dream sequence. In the second, she’s the heart. Florence Pugh in Dune 2 is the setup for the massive payoff in the third film, Dune Messiah.
She isn't a victim. She's a witness.
The Strategy Behind the Silence
Pugh herself described Irulan as "one of the quietest characters" she’s ever played. That’s a wild statement from the woman who gave us the primal screams of Midsommar or the fast-talking Yelena Belova in the MCU.
Irulan is a Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank. She’s been trained to see through everyone's BS. While her father, the Emperor, is panicking about the "Muad'Dib" problem on Arrakis, Irulan is the one doing the math. She’s calculated. She’s the one who realizes that killing a prophet only makes them a martyr.
📖 Related: The Spider-Man Pointing Meme: Why This 60s Cartoon Mistake Is Still Everywhere
"She is someone that is constantly listening, and always learning," Pugh told SFX magazine.
She’s basically a human recorder. When you see her in those insane chainmail outfits—which, by the way, are masterpieces of costume design by Jacqueline West—she looks like a knight or a nun. That’s intentional. She is protected, but she’s also trapped in the very system she’s documenting.
That Heartbreaking Ending
The climax of the film is where everything shifts. Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) finally makes his move. He defeats Feyd-Rautha, captures the Emperor, and then, in a move that absolutely guts Chani, he demands Irulan’s hand in marriage.
It’s not a love match. It’s a hostile takeover.
Pugh’s face in that final sequence is a masterclass in "acting without lines." You see her realize she’s being traded like a commodity to save her father’s life. But you also see the wheels turning. She isn't just accepting a fate; she's stepping into a new arena. That final glance between Pugh and Zendaya? That wasn't in the script. It was a moment of two women realizing they are now the two most important pawns on a very bloody chessboard.
What Happens in the Next Chapter?
Since Dune: Part Two grossed over $714 million and basically saved the box office in early 2024, the sequel, Dune Messiah, is a certainty. Pugh has already confirmed she’s returning.
If Villeneuve stays true to the books, things are about to get very dark for Irulan.
- The Marriage of Convenience: Paul and Irulan get married, but he refuses to touch her. He wants his bloodline to come from Chani and Chani alone.
- The Sabotage: In the books, a frustrated and sidelined Irulan actually starts slipping Chani contraceptives to prevent an Atreides heir. It’s a desperate, villainous turn that Pugh is going to absolutely nail.
- The Redemption: Eventually, she has to choose between her loyalty to the Bene Gesserit and her growing respect for the house she helped "usurp."
Why This Matters for 2026 and Beyond
Filming for Dune Messiah is rumored to be on the horizon, and with Pugh’s schedule filling up with Marvel’s Thunderbolts, the timing is tight. But the "Dune-iverse" needs her. She provides the intellectual counterweight to Paul’s messianic madness.
While everyone else is fighting with crysknives and atomic weapons, Irulan is fighting with history. She is the one who writes the books that people will read 10,000 years later.
How to Prepare for the Future of Dune
If you’re looking to get ahead of the curve before the third movie drops, don't just rewatch the film.
👉 See also: Iron Man: Why the 2008 Movie Still Hits Different
- Read the Epigraphs: If you pick up the original Dune novel, read the little quotes at the start of every chapter. Those are all "written" by Irulan. They give you a much better sense of her voice and her eventual regret.
- Watch the Featurettes: There’s a specific featurette on the Dune: Part Two Blu-ray called "Princess Irulan Corrino" that dives into how Pugh and Villeneuve built the character from the ground up.
- Track the 2026 Release: Keep an eye on the production cycles for Messiah. With the 2023 strikes far in the rearview mirror, the turnaround for this next chapter is expected to be faster than the gap between parts one and two.
Florence Pugh didn't come to Arrakis to be a background character. She came to be the one who tells the story. And as Paul Atreides is finding out, the person who writes the history books has more power than the person holding the sword.
Keep an eye on the official Warner Bros. production logs for Dune: Messiah casting updates to see how Irulan's role expands in the upcoming script.