Why There Weren't As Many Redheads in the Film
Any book-to-movie adaptation brings about tons of criticism from long-time fans. One major difference Herbet readers noticed immediately was that there were a lot of red-headed characters missing from the trailer. To be specific, they were referring to House Harkonnen. The antagonists of the books and films have always had red hair, like Herbert originally intended, but Villeneuve had another idea: to make them bald. When you hear Villeneuve explain why — the environment of the planet these characters reside is an artificial world clouded by pollution — it makes sense. House Harkonnen is completely hairless, so Mowat used eyebrow blockers and gave the actors, including Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), pale and borderline sickly skin.
But the Baron wasn't the only redhead missing — so was Chani, who's been described as having tawny-red hair. So, why does Zendaya rock her natural brunette colour? Although Mowat is a fan of creating fiery red looks, he admitted that it's been done before and felt like this adaptation warranted something new.