While Dune had a majority of its characters go through a costume change as the Atreides moved to Arrakis. However, since the second half of Dune and in Dune 2 the major colors seen in the movie are Yellow, a bit of red, Black, White and usually the sand Brown. However, one color that often pops up on screen is the blue in the eyes of the Fremen. But in Dune 2, the same color crops up in two different places — Water of Life and Chani’s scarf.
Against the minimalistic setting and background, the blue in Zendaya’s costume pops up often and holds a significant presence on screen. As it turns out there is a deeper meaning to the same and it just wasn’t a costume choice. The scarf could lead to two meanings, one that comes from the mythology of Dune books and another which is meant for the cinematic storyline of the film.
However, director Denis Villeneuve revealed that Dune 2 changed the meaning of Chani’s blue scarf for the movie. It seems like for the second instalment of the series, the makers will not be touching the meaning in the source material. He reportedly confirmed in The Art and Soul of Dune: Part Two (via Courtney Howard) that blue is worn by Fremen women when they “fall in love.”
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Dune: Part 2 shows Paul and Chani intimate with each other as they begin to spend more time with each other while taking down spice production and mining machines of the Harkonnens. It is halfway through the first half that Chani can be seen wearing the blue scarf on her head. Possibly symbolising her love for Paul. But half through the film as Paul and Chani’s relationship develops and changes, the positioning of the scarf also changes. In the later scenes, she can be seen moving that scarf from her head to her arm.
There is another significant scene at the end of the film that hints at Chani’s relationship with Paul and how the scarf depicts it. At the end of the film, after Paul announces that he will marry Princess Irulan for power, he has turned into everything Chani stood against. In the next shot, Channi walks away from Pual and the city storms off into the desert alone. In this scene, the blue scarf is nowhere to be seen. The meaning of its absence could be as simple as Chani does not love Paul anymore, but the other meaning of the scarf from the books adds a layer of foreshadowing for the third part of the film.
In the books by Fark Herbert, a blue Nezhoni scarf was worn by Fremen women who had newborn sons. The storyline of the book has Chani give birth to three kids. First son Leto who is killed as a child, followed by twins Leto II and daughter Ghanima Atreides. While the film does not talk about Chani being pregnant or giving birth yet, the details of their children may be changed for the big screen adaptation. The makers have already made many major changes and this would be one of the same.
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The third film could reflect how Chani at the time was pregnant and that’s why she wore the blue scarf. It could also hint at her losing the child in the heavy battle at the end of the film and walking away alone. Based on the book, Paul will be returning to Chani as the two will have another set of twins. At the end of Dune 2, Paul could still be unaware of the same and it could be the grief of losing a child that brings them together again.
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