The Emperor might have a larger role — and even an onscreen role — in Villeneuve’s planned second Dune film. (“Will we have a sequel to Dune? If you watch the movie, you see how it ends. I think you pretty much know the answer to that,” WarnerMedia Studios and Networks CEO Ann Sarnoff told Deadline recently.)

In the meantime, this Dune film shows Paul and Jessica aligning with the Fremen, the native population of Arrakis. And going forward, their combined forces could halt spice production on the planet and force the Emperor to acknowledge his role in the war.

“The Emperor will face an uphill battle against the combined Atreides and Fremen alliance,” Screen Rant’s Chris Bellows speculates. “He will find himself precariously perched between revealing his treachery to the Landsraad, which risks galactic war, or totally disrupting the entire universal economy. All audiences can do now is hope for a Dune sequel to find out who will prevail between the duplicitous forces of the Emperor and House Harkonnen and the Fremen followers of Paul Atreides.”