Fans, reviewers, and novelty popcorn collectors were delighted with Dune: Part Two, and Warner Bros. was pleased with the outcome. However, there has been no word yet about when production on Dune Messiah, likely to be the third film in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy, will begin. Naturally, the director wanted a vacation after Dune: Part Two. Still, he is also throwing cold water on the idea that the Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya-starring Dune movies are genuinely a part of a trilogy.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Villeneuve—who has already devoted years of his life to adapting novels by Frank Herbert, and there are still many pages to go through—made it evident that he has given the issue a great deal of attention. “First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych. It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished,” he said. “If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.”
Additionally, it appears that Villeneuve is hesitant to use Dune Messiah as a benchmark for evaluating his work schedule; he stated to the magazine, “I like to do one thing at a time … I have too many things right now,” he said, citing the third Dune film as only one of the many on his plate.
American science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert launched the Dune media franchise in 1965, and it has since expanded to include several books. Many people claim that Dune is the best-selling science fiction book ever written. It was later turned into a 1984 film, a 2000 television miniseries, and a two-part series, with the first picture in 2021 and a sequel in 2024. It won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Hugo Award in 1966. Herbert penned five sequels. The first two simultaneously turned into miniseries in 2003. Dune has also influenced several video games and tabletop games.
The story, which takes place tens of thousands of years in the future, tells the tale of a society that forbids any “thinking machines,” including computers, robots, and artificial intelligence. Instead, humanity has created sophisticated physical and mental disciplines and cutting-edge technologies that abide by the computer ban. The inhospitable desert planet Arrakis, the sole known source of the spice melange—the most precious material in the universe—is essential to this empire.
When Villeneuve’s time as a storyteller in Dune is up, he would be more than happy for someone else to pick up the story. “Listen, if Dune Messiah happens, it will have been many years for me on Arrakis, and I would love to do something else,” he told Vanity Fair. “I think that it would be a good idea for me to make sure that, in Messiah, there are the seeds in the project if someone wants to do something else afterwards, because they are beautiful books. They are more difficult to adapt. They become more and more esoteric. It’s a bit more tricky to adapt, but I’m not closing the door. I will not do it myself, but it could happen with someone else.”
There’s a lot of material to work from. In 1986, Frank Herbert passed away. Brian Herbert, his son, and science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson began publishing collections of prequel novels in 1999. They also published two sequels, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007), which finished the original Dune series. These books were partly based on notes in Frank Herbert’s possession ten years after his death.
Legendary Entertainment confirmed that Denis Villeneuve will return for the third film but has not confirmed a release date. Unverified reports claim the film based on Frank Herbert’s 1969 novel Dune Messiah will be released in December 2026.
You can read the complete Villeneuve interview with Vanity Fair here. The interview was also recorded for the magazine’s Little Gold Men podcast.
Do you think the Dune movies should continue without Villeneuve? What did you think of the films? Let us know in the comments below!
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