Denis Villeneuve Wants to Make Third ‘Dune’

If the second movie is a success, the filmmaker is looking to continue the story for another entry and has started making plans.

Director/Writer/Producer Denis Veilleneuve on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure 'Dune: Part Two,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Niko Tavernise. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

At the moment, most of the news about ‘Dune: Part Two' has been bad. That’s because studio Warner Bros., concerned that the ongoing actors’ strike affects the opportunity for stars such as Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson and Florence Pugh to do press and promote it via red carpet premieres, has decided to delay the movie to next year.

Yet director Denis Villeneuve remains confident in his follow-up to 2021’s ambitious science fiction epic and is in fact making early plans for a third movie.

Which is perhaps not too shocking since there is plenty of material. Author Frank Herbert, on whose ‘Dune’ the movies are based, continued the story of Arrakis in a series of subsequent novels, before his son Brian took over to continue it even further. The sand, therefore, is far from running out.

Dune: Part Two

"Long live the fighters."

PG-132 hr 47 minMar 1st, 2024

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Watch Dune: Part Two Online

What did Villeneuve say about a potential third Dune?

'Dune Part Two' CinemaCon 2023 Presentation and Press Line, April 25th. Photos By Eric Charbonneau.

While the first two movies adapt the original ‘Dune’ book, a third would target ‘Dune Messiah’.

Talking with Empire, the director said this:

“If I succeed in making a trilogy, that would be the dream. Dune Messiah was written in reaction to the fact that people perceived Paul Atreides as a hero. Which is not what he wanted to do. My adaptation [of ‘Dune’] is closer to his idea that it’s actually a warning. After that the books become more… esoteric.”

Sounds like he’ll be done with ‘Dune’ after any third film. Which, given the time and effort he put into the first two, is understandable, especially given all the delays (pandemic for the first, strikes for the second).

And in case you’re wondering whether this is just a filmmaker speculating, Villeneuve confirms that there are “words on paper” for a third movie. Likely not a script (given the writers’ strike) but at least an idea.

What’s the story of ‘Dune: Part Two’?

Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure 'Dune: Part Two,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Niko Tavernise. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

‘Dune: Part Two’ adapts the second half of Herbert’s novel and keeps the focus on Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). He is, as you recall, the scion of House Atreides, whose father Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) was ordered by the Emperor of the galaxy to take over running Arrakis, the desert planet from where the various space-going people mine valuable spice to help their navigators guide vessels.

It was, of course, part of a plan between the violent, cruel Harkonnen (led by Stellan Skarsgård’s Baron) and the Emperor to destroy the Atreides.

The new movie picks up the story after Paul and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) flee into the desert following the devastating attack on the Atreides base by Harkonnen and Imperial forces. Paul is destined to rise as a spiritual and military leader of the native Fremen and lead an attack against the Harkonnen and the scheming Emperor.

Who is in ‘Dune: Part Two’?

Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure 'Dune: Part Two,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Niko Tavernise. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Alongside Chalamet and Ferguson, we’ll see the return of Josh Brolin (who plays Atreides war master Gurney Halleck, another survivor of the attack) and Skarsgård, along with Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, AKA “The Beast”.

On the Fremen side, we’ll get to properly meet Zendaya’s Chani, a Fremen warrior who haunted Paul’s dreams and visions long before he ever met her, and who is destined to become the great love of his life. And Javier Bardem’s Stilgar, leader of the Fremen people, who will work with Paul to attack the Harkonnen.

New this time? Florence Pugh, who plays Princess Irulan and Christopher Walken as her father, Emperor Shaddam IV.

On the Harkonnen side, there is the cunning, weapon happy Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, played by ‘Elvis’ Austin Butler.

‘Dune: Part Two’ will (hopefully) be in theaters on March 15th, 2024.

Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure 'Dune: Part Two,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Niko Tavernise. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.