Josh Brolin’s character Gurney Halleck made a return in Dune: Part Two, but another one of Paul’s mentors, Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson) was nowhere to be found.
As it turns out, Henderson did shoot some scenes for the movie with Austin Butler (Feyd-Rautha), but they were ultimately cut. Director Denis Villeneuve explains to Entertainment Weekly:
“One of the most painful choices for me on this one was Thufir Hawat… He’s a character I absolutely love, but I decided right at the beginning that I was making a Bene Gesserit adaptation. That meant that Mentats are not as present as they should be, but it’s the nature of the adaptation.”
In the lore, Thufir was a mentat, a human computer who was trained to store a vast amount of knowledge and make complicated computations. He had a small role in the first movie, and was expected to have an appearance in the sequel, but he ultimately ended up not showing up.
In the book, Thufir is taken in by the Harkonnens and is forced to be the baron’s new mentat (since his original mentat was killed in the first movie). Thufir would use some of his own skills to plot against the Harkonnens, but he ultimately kills himself to save Paul when he rises as the new leader of the Fremen.
Though Thufir was cut from the film, fans of the movie would have definitely loved to see how his scenes played out. After all, you don’t just cast someone as endearing as Henderson and not have him do anything that significant in your franchise.
For now, Dune: Part Two is now showing in theaters.
