The thought did occur to me, actually. It can be justified as many different races have clearly settled on Arrakis in the past, but yes I agree Chani should probably have been played by a middle eastern or african actor. I do like Zendaya though.
Another topic - I was reading this article and Denis Villeneuve touches on why he chose a very realistic colour palette. I suspected it was for realism (as the film hasn’t been de-saturated, the colours are what the deserts of Wadi Rum and Abu Dhabi actually look like) and he seems to confirm this.
https://www.indiewire.com/2021/08/denis-villeneuve-dune-2-zendaya-protagonist-1234658258/
