Denis Villeneuve responds to criticism that 'Dune' is a white-savior story: 'It's the opposite'

"It's a criticism of the idea of a savior, of someone that will come and tell another population how to be, what to believe," the director said.

• Denis Villeneuve said in a September interview that "Dune" isn't a white savior film.
• The sci-fi movie is based on a novel, but has been criticized for playing into white savior tropes.
• Villeneuve, however, said that his adaptation of "Dune" is a "critique" of the savior narrative.

Denis Villeneuve doesn't think his adaptation of "Dune" is a white "savior" story.

"Dune" is based on the 1965 sci-fi novel of the same name by Frank Herbert. And during a September interview with a group of journalists, including CinemaBlend, Villeneuve was asked about criticisms the original novel had faced of glorifying the white savior narrative.

"It's a very important question, and it's why I thought that 'Dune' is when, the way I'm reading it, relevant," Villeneuve said, adding that his film is a "critique" of white saviorism.

"It's not a celebration of a savior. It's a criticism of the idea of a savior, of someone that will come and tell another population how to be, what to believe," he explained. "It's not a condemnation, but a criticism. So that's the way I feel it's relevant, and that can be seen as contemporary."

Villeneuve reiterated that his new film is "the opposite" of a white savior movie.

Like the novel that inspired it, the new "Dune" follows young Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he travels to the desert planet Arrakis with his family - father Leto, the duke of house Atreides (Oscar Isaac), and mother Jessica, a Bene Gesserit witch (Rebecca Ferguson).

Upon arriving on Arrakis, House Atreides are instantly met with challenges, and Paul eventually escapes into the desert with Jessica, where he becomes a leader of the Fremen - a group of people indigenous to Arrakis.

In the years since "Dune" was published (and two adaptations, David Lynch's 1984 film version, and a 2000 miniseries, were released), critics have argued that Paul's involvement with the Fremen, who were reportedly inspired by the people and culture of the Middle East, bears the trademark of a white savior narrative.

However, in Herbert's novels, Paul's involvement with the Fremen doesn't exactly end well. And while criticisms of Herbert's "borrowing" from Middle Eastern culture to construct the world of "Dune" are valid, the new film makes clear that the wellbeing of the Fremen people doesn't depend on Paul.