James McAvoy Reflects On His Forgotten Dune TV Series

Denis Villenueve’s Dune is the second feature length adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal novel, and will be hoping to fare much better than David Lynch’s 1984 box office bomb, but the source material has been brought to the small screen more than once during the intervening decades.

The Sci-Fi Channel premiered three-part miniseries Frank Herbert’s Dune in 2000, which drew strong ratings and decent reviews, so much so that a sequel was ordered. Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune arrived in March 2003, based on Herbert’s second and third novels Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.

One of the more notable names among the ensemble was a young James McAvoy, who starred as Leto II Atreides in what was the highest profile role of his fledgling career at the time. In a new interview with SlashFilm, the actor reflected on his experience, and revealed if he had any advice to offer the stars of Villenueve’s sci-fi epic.

“I’ll tell you what’s one really good piece of advice that was given to me once, was by the cast of, what was the show called again? Farscape. And it was at the L.A. premiere of Children of Dune, and they said to me, that the thing with this sh*t, i.e., science fiction, is that you have to believe it more than you believe good writing. Good writing, you can just do. It’s easier. But this stuff is hard because it’s so bonkers, you know what I mean? And I’ve really, I’ve always remembered that advice and taken it to heart. It’s so kept me going really, through a lot of science fiction and fantasy work that I’ve done. Because it was Claudia Black that said it. And I think that’s just good advice for any actor doing any kind of science fiction and/or fantasy, you know?.”

A lot of people probably aren’t aware that the former Charles Xavier even appeared in a Dune series almost 20 years ago, but with McAvoy currently on the press trail for improvisational Peacock thriller My Son at the same time the latest stab at Herbert’s intricate mythology is entering the final stage of its marketing push, it was inevitable that somebody was going to ask him about it.