When Denis Villeneuve set out to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune, the filmmaker knew he was in for a lot of work, including bringing to life all the otherworldly creatures that populated this sci-fi classic. However, while his first Dune movie featured the iconic sandworms, Part Two and onwards could introduce an even stranger creature: the Guild Navigators.
After all, Villeneuve himself has referred to 2021’s Dune as a building block for what’s to come. He has teased that Part Two is really when he’ll start having fun with the franchise’s lore due to the first movie roughly covering around half of the eponymous novel. So, what is a Guild Navigator anyway? How do they factor into the Spacing Guild? What’s their relationship to the Bene Gesserit sisterhood? And finally, why are they so important in the overall plot?
What Are Guild Navigators?
The best way to sum up Guild Navigators in the Dune universe is to say they are the only individuals capable of traveling through the space-time fabric of the universe, which allows them to move swiftly across planets with ease using Heighliner starships. With great power comes great responsibility, and thus, their monopoly over interstellar travel gives Guild Navigators a lot of bargaining leverage. They can swing the tides of war, manipulate trade, and change the fate of empires.
Guild Navigators draw their powers from spice. In fact, their prolonged exposure to Arrakis’ number one export ends up transforming them physically to the point that Paul Atreides wonders if there’s any humanity left in them. Spice melange is not only ingested by these navigators via pills or any traditional methods. They eventually immerse themselves in spice tanks, where their deformed bodies gain foresight powers.
It’s that prescient ability that ends up making the Guilld Navigators a crucial element in Dune because, like the Bene Gesserit, they operate with a lot of secrecy and independence from any form of government. Considering Dune: Part Two will follow Paul Atreides’ rise to power with the Fremen by his side, the premonitions seen by Guild Navigators could prove vital once the Bene Gesserit realize their pick for "Kwisatz Haderach" might have been misplaced.
It must be said that while Guild Navigators are the most prominent and powerful rank at the Spacing Guild, they are not the only members of this semi-secret society. The organization is made up of guild agents, administrators, and representatives. The latter even shows up at the start of the 2021 film, when Duke Leto is briefed on his new deadly assignment.
What Do Guild Navigators Look Like?
One of the reasons why Guild Navigators are so fascinating is their physical appearance, which has proven to be a difficult aspect to get right in each of Dune’s existing adaptations. In the novels, Guild Navigators are described as beings with extended fish-like bodies, covered by a slick bug-like membrane. They also possess big heads and lidless blue eyes that give away the large amounts of spice they’ve consumed throughout their lives.
Guild Navigators are supposed to be an unsettling or mesmerizing sight for anyone that ever sees one, as their appearance suggests they're no longer human. Of course, Guild Navigators ended up making it into David Lynch’s 1984 Dune adaptation, though the director did switch up their design to be more grotesque, coming off as bloated deformed alien-like worms with a haunting tone of voice. They were quite a deviation from the Dune novels.
When the Sci-fi Channel’s Dune miniseries came out, Guild Navigators got a new extreme makeover. The 2000 adaptation abandoned Lynch’s unsightly approach in favor of something closer to the books. These Guild Navigators do appear more fish-like, and they have the quintessential blue eye glow. Nevertheless, the overall concept is much closer to a slender alien from any random sci-fi series of the era. In this version, they also speak in a normal voice that fits their high-ranking place in society.
With so many advancements in CGI technology having taken place in the past 20 years, Villeneuve’s Dune has the chance to make the best-looking Guild Navigators any fan could imagine. It’s safe to say these beings will retain their signature blue eyes, as well as their interstellar travel abilities, regardless of final the look they’re given.
Will Dune 2 Introduce Guild Navigators?
One key thing to keep in mind is that Guild Navigators really don't show up in Herbert's books until Dune Messiah, so they're not in the first novel. Hence, this why Navigators never made it into Villeneuve's film, and why they're not guaranteed to appear in Dune: Part Two.
Long before the movie came out, creature designer Carlos Huante, who also worked with Villeneuve on Arrival, had said Navigators weren't in the film because the director had told him they needed to make the film "smaller, so we can tell this story well."
That said, the Spacing Guild is already a part of Villeneuve's Dune universe. Navigators could be included to make for a shocking reveal ahead of a third film that really ramps up the scale of the plot to adapt works like Dune Messiah.