Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Dune: Part Two.

Glossu Rabban, who was played by Dave Bautista, died in Dune: Part Two, and while his demise was different from the books, it actually kept a 40-year-old tradition alive. Dune: Part Two made some significant changes to the book, and one such change was to the fate of Rabban Harkonnen. Paul Atreides and House Atreides finally got their revenge against the Harkonnens, but the way they did it actually distances Dune: Part Two from the novel while bringing it closer to earlier adaptations.

There have been three main Dune adaptations in total: David Lynch’s 1984 version, a TV miniseries from 2000, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Dune: Part Two. While the Dune adaptations range in quality and faithfulness to their source book, they do all have one significant similarity. Each adaptation has kept a trend surrounding Beast Rabban going for 40 years, and Dune: Part Two is no exception.

Beast Rabban Has Now Died In A Different Way In Every Dune Adaptation

In each adaptation of Dune, Beast Rabban died uniquely. In Dune (1984), he was killed by Emperor Shaddam IV and his severed head was put on display in the throne room scene. In the Dune miniseries, Rabban was instead swarmed by a mob of angry Fremen. Dune: Part Two kept that tradition alive by having Bautista’s Rabban be killed by Gurney Halleck, his old rival. The three main adaptations offer three very different endings to Rabban’s story, and there’s a good reason the scenes varied so much despite having a well-established book to reference.

How Rabban Dies In Frank Herbert’s Dune Books

Though Rabban’s death varies greatly from the book, the changes in his final moments are actually directly inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune, or rather, what’s not in it. In the book, Rabban’s death is little more than a status report. Dune doesn’t explain how Rabban died, and his fate wasn’t even properly depicted in the book; Stilgar simply told Paul, “Rabban, too, is dead.” It wasn’t even a big moment, as Paul Atreides simply nodded and Gurney didn’t say anything. While that didn’t give the different Dune adaptations much to work with, it did give them ample room to interpret how exactly he died.

The ambiguity of Rabban’s death in the Dune book meant that each version of Dune got to do something thematically different with his death. In Lynch’s Dune, Rabban’s death was used to show the Emperor’s brutality and power. In the miniseries, the Fremen finally got revenge against their oppressor. In Dune: Part Two, it was Gurney who finally had his vengeance. In fact, Dune: Part Two is technically the biggest departure from the book, as Gurney was with Paul when Rabban was reported dead. While it changed the book slightly, Villeneuve’s version of Rabban’s death actually still fits with a part of Dune‘s message.

Part of the reason Herbert had Rabban die in a separate scene is because it subverted expectations: he had been built up as Gurney’s greatest foe, and instead of letting Gurney have that cathartic moment of revenge, Rabban died by someone else’s hand. Villenueve essentially accomplished the same thing. By having the fight between Gurney and Rabban be so short, he took away what could have been a final showdown of the movie, except instead of taking it from Gurney, he took it from the audience. Rabban’s death is another example of Villeneuve expertly adapting the themes of Herbert’s story into Dune: Part Two.