But isn't Chani described as dark skinned? Red hair, sure, but dark skinned (like Fremen should be, I guess). So isn't Zendaya a good fit for that? Easier to put on a wig...
Yes. Dark skin, red hair. It's set 20,000 years in the future after millennia of diaspora and human evolution. Human phenotypes would likely be quite diverse at that point and I think Herbert depicted them as such, although it's been a while since I read the novels.
Fremen live underground and considering Arrakis is in space, they migrated there, so it's not like they evolved to live on that place. The only forced evolution would be that, the longer they stay underground without sunlight, the paler coming generations would be. They are described as thin and with "leathery skin". "Leathery skin" is usually a result of a White, or just generally light-skinned, person tanning without sunscreen. You can see it in the South or usually old men who've been working their fields without protection for years and years. So along with the red hair, and going logically about the whole thing, the Fremen are most probably pale, White people, who tan in places where they aren't wearing their suits. They're supposed to be mostly malnourished too, which contributes to the "leathery skin".
However, with stuff like the Dune Encyclopedia and whatnot, they were suppose to be far-off Sunni, and coupled with the desert planet motiff, lots of people see them as Arabs. Which isn't far-fetched either, as there are light skinned, bright eyed, and light haired Arabs. There are even natural Arab redheads who are natives to the land.
This is Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco. Yeah I know it's NA, but it is a part of the Arab World. You can google redheaded Arabs yourself.
And said light skinned Arabs, when they tan without protection, get that kind of tanned, "leathery skin" I mentioned above. So, all things considered, if you wanted to be diverse and inclusive and whatever, you could go that route. You'd have light skinned Arabs, darker skinned Arabs, tanned Arabs, whatever. It'd make sense, it'd be accurate to the source material, and it'd give a chance to go for another non-White group that isn't "Something-Mixed American black".
In the end, Zendaya isn't a good choice. She's neither White nor Arab. Race isn't skin deep, so her mixed whatever-colour matters little. In the 50s and 60s you had white Hollywood stars with a darker tan than her. Watch something like "The Red Shoes", and the skintone difference between Boris and Victoria is stark, even though one's Austrian and the other's Scottish. She doesn't pass off as an Arab, considering that she's just a mixed, black American girl. When George Clooney tans he's darker than her, but I doubt he's consider "non-White". People harp on about "Lawrence Of Arabia", but Alec Guiness was very close to the actual Faisal:
And that's because Arabs are Caucasian as well. If you were making LoA now, of course you'd get an actor of the same ethnicity. But my point is that a White is closer to a MENA than a black.
This whole casting is a Metropolitan thing where "tanning" is just a thing you do in Solariums (and somehow isn't reversible), all "darker" people are just a vague cluster of "brown" or "black" and Arabs, MENAs and every other African are put in the same basket. It's what gave rise to the "Moors be black" which still stands today. Which is why you get nonsense such black Egyptians and black Hannibal accepted as truth. We're at the stage where Cleopatra and Achilles are turning black, so this is getting worse.
As for the "it's the future" argument, it really doesn't hold up. I mean, it's "da futah", who knows, maybe we're all gone look like Hitler's wet dream. Or maybe we're gonna be three-armed and with a Scrotum Leader head. You're not adapting "dude, it's da futah", you're adapting "Dune". House Atreides is supposed to be a bunch of Space Greeks. If I can suspend my belief enough to accept that there'd ever be a Space Greek Monarchy with roots back to Atreus, then I can surely believe that the world wouldn't be a "California Mixed Utopia" where ethnicities and identities don't matter, and we're all the same and sheeeeeeiiiiii "cuz it's da futah". It's "the future" is just an excuse to write Fantasy but wilder and in Space; anything goes. So if you're gonna adapt "Dune", adapt "Dune".
So, no, Zendaya doesn't fit. Nor as how Chani is described, and neither as a Space Arab. Chani's a redhead, but I guess we have to scrub redheads from every single piece of media. MJ? Gone. Triss? Gone. Lana Lang? Gone. Jimmy Olsen? Gone. Ariel? Gone. I guess I have to prepare for Jean'iqua Grey in the MCU (which means that I won't even care for the MCU X-Men in that case).
His face is already putting me to sleep.
G-zeus. This films has all the makings of an epic borefest, with a dull looking protagonist, questionable production design and costumes, and the possible political content and social commentary in the story.
I hope I'm wrong and the film makes me eat crow.
Watch "The King" for Chalamet and see if you warm up to him.
For the rest, I feel the same.
