Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Dune.
Throughout Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movie, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) has multiple meaningful encounters with a curious character – the desert mouse species native to the desert world of Arrakis. In the movie, the mouse is portrayed as little more than a recurring symbol of hope and endurance, which it is, but a closer look at Frank Herbert’s original Dune novel reveals the little animal symbolizes far more than that. If Dune 2 ends up being made, the desert mouse of Arrakis will only become more important.
In the Fremen language, the name for the desert mouse is muad’dib – a name that anyone who’s read the books in the Dune franchise will know well. That’s because it’s the name Paul Atreides takes after being accepted into the Freman culture later in the first novel. Each chapter of Dune starts with a retrospective excerpt from future writings about Paul’s life, all of which refer to him as Muad’Dib. Why the young Duke chooses that name in particular, however, is rather complicated.
The first reason for Paul choosing Muad’Dib as his Fremen name is the cultural and spiritual significance the desert mouse has on Arrakis. The muad’dib is seen as a wise creature, able to survive the harshness of the desert through nocturnal activity and the ability to produce its own water. Though he's still just a teenager, Paul has already faced great challenges in his life, with his world being ripped apart after the combined forces of the Emperor and House Harkonnen killed his father and all but wiped out House Atreides. Despite being a nobleman's son, Paul has been trained from a young age to adapt – he's a survivor, just like the desert mouse. Paul chooses the name after joining Stilgar’s Fremen tribe, and he’s commended afterward for selecting such a strong and carefully considered title as Muad’Dib.
However, there’s another meaning behind Paul taking the name of the mouse as his own later in the Dune timeline. One of the main constellations of Arrakis resembles the desert mouse and is therefore also named for the muad’dib. Because the tail of the mouse in the constellation points north, it’s an important landmark for desert navigation, sometimes being referred to as “The One Who Points The Way.” In the novel, Paul has a premonition that he will be called Muad’Dib by the Fremen because of this second meaning, fulfilling the Lisan al Gaib prophecy by becoming the leader and liberator of the people of Arrakis. Paul thus embodies all meanings of muad'dib, being a survivor, a beacon, and a leader of others.
Very little of this greater significance is conveyed in the Dune movie, and the constellation isn’t mentioned at all, yet Paul seems fascinated by the little desert mice that populate the planet. The story of Dune 2 will surely show Paul becoming one of the Fremen and taking Muad’Dib as his own name, revealing why he spends so much time studying and considering the small animals of the desert. Paul Atreides is called many names over the course of his life, but in the historical texts of the Dune universe, he’s known as Muad’Dib.