It's a brave director who sets about translating the epic tomes of author Frank Herbert’s sci-fi saga, Dune, to the big screen – just ask David Lynch. And it wasn’t until 2021, almost sixty years after the first novel in the series was released, that anyone cracked it. That filmmaker was Denis Villeneuve.
The Canadian auteur managed to encapsulate the spirit of the story in his critically-acclaimed, star-studded epic. And better yet, the recently released follow up, Dune: Part 2, has earned raver reviews and made over £100 million more at the box office. So, in typically impatient fashion, fans are now demanding a third instalment in the series. Here’s everything we know so far…
When is Dune 3 out?
For now, the answer is as mysterious as the shifting sands of Arrakis. In August 2023, Villeneuve told Empire that depending on the success of Dune: Part Two (well, duh) he had begun developing a script for the third outing.
On 24 February, he told The Times that he wanted to take his own, sweet time: “There is absolutely a desire to have a third one, but I don’t want to rush it. The danger in Hollywood is that people get excited and only think about release dates, not quality.”
However, a few days later, his music collaborator Hans Zimmer told Variety: “Denis comes in on the second day of shooting [Dune: Part 2], and wordlessly comes in and puts Dune: Messiah on my desk, and I know where we’re going and I know we’re not done.”
And! On 3 March, when it was reported that IMAX screens were running out of seats to cater for everyone who wanted their minds melted by Dune: Part Two, Legendary Entertainment's CEO Josh Grode gave the firmest word so far that a third part has the studios' backing as well.
“I think this is a movie where you know the word of mouth is going to carry it. It is a stupendous piece of filmmaking. There’s no other way to say it. I’ve just about run out of adjectives,” Grode said told CNBC. “We have to have all creative stakeholders aligned and support the vision. I think everybody is very excited and really enjoying this moment and if Denis [Villeneuve] gets the script right and he feels that he can deliver another experience on par with what we’ve just completed then I don’t see why not.”
Look, all we’re saying is: rejoice that it’s coming, just don’t expect it any time soon.
What’s the big idea?
Villeneuve has said a couple of times that he sees the Dune franchise being a trilogy, and that the third film will be based on the plot of Dune Messiah. As per Yahoo! he said: “The thing I envision, the adaptation of two books, Dune and Dune Messiah. We decided to split the first novel in two, so now we are at three movies. Those movies are very long to make. For my mental sanity, I decided to just dream about three movies.”
Dune Messiah is the second of four novels in the rise of the Atreides era. In this particular story, we rejoin the action 12 years after Paul became Emperor. Following a jihad that kills billions, he faces new opposition to his rule as Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, and Tleilaxu all combine forces to topple him.
There’s a cloned version of Paul’s mentor, Duncan Idaho; twins born to Atreides and Chani (spoiler alert: don’t count on her having a happy ending) and Paul ends up blind-but-equipped with psychic visions through his sons. It’s a lot to get through, but there’s no excuse not to start ploughing through the book before the film’s adaptation.
Who is in the cast of Dune 3?
Presumably Timothée Chalamet will return as Paul Atreides, possibly with help from Hollywood’s best make-up artists to age him more than a decade into the future. Fans will also be hoping for a comeback for the other half of the Dune duo, with Zendaya appearing as Chani.
We could also see Anya Taylor-Joy and Florence Pugh make a reappearance. As well as being firm fan favourites, they both feature in the book as Paul’s sister, Alia, and Princess Irulan, respectively.
Even Jason Mamoa – who starred as Duncan Idaho in the first film – is keen to get back on the sci-fi set, telling Men’s Health: “It'll be a good future now if Duncan Idaho may have some sort of... You know what we did have? Oh man, I can't actually say this. I'll get in trouble. Fuck… Well, there was something that was really cool that went into the movie that didn't make the first one, and it was pretty epic. I'll try to get it back. I'll try to get it back in the third one.”
Is there a trailer for Dune 3?
No, not yet. We’ll let you know when that arrives.
What about the rumoured Dune TV series?
Yeah, that sounds like it’s kinda stalled. Back in 2019, a spin-off TV series called Dune: The Sisterhood was announced as a prequel to the film and would be based around the Bene Gesserit.
Villeneuve was exec producing it and set to direct the first episode, but there has been a bit of a revolving door for writers and showrunners. Jon Spaihts was initially writing the screenplay and Dana Calvo as showrunner, but Spaihts left in 2019 and Calvo was replaced with Diane Ademu-John in 2021.
By 2023, Ademu-John was out the door and Alison Schapker was named as the new showrunner before Deadline reported that the production was on hiatus. All things considered, our money’s probably on Dune 3 hitting the screens a long time before the TV show, if ever.
