Denis Villeneuve returns to Arrakis for Dune: Part Two, and he hopes his journey doesn’t end there.
The filmmaker opened up in an interview with Empire Magazine about wanting to continue to explore the desert planet created by Frank Herbert in a third movie based on Dune Messiah if it were to get greenlit.
“If I succeed in making a trilogy, that would be the dream,” he told the publication about bringing to life Herbert’s follow-up to Dune. “Dune Messiah was written in reaction to the fact that people perceived Paul Atreides as a hero, which is not what [Herbert] wanted to do. My adaptation [of Dune] is closer to his idea that it’s actually a warning.”
Villeneuve explained he would say goodbye to Arrakis after Dune 3 and move on to other projects. “After that the books become more… esoteric,” he explained. While he has yet to get the go-ahead for a third installment, the director admitted that it’s not only in his head. “There are words on paper,” he revealed.
Dune 2 picks up where the first one left off, with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) finally reaching Chani (Zendaya) and joining forces with the Fremen to bring down the evil Harkonnens. Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård and Dave Bautista also return for the sequel.
New castmembers include an albino Austin Butler as Feyd Rautha, whom Villeneuve has described as an “Olympic sword master crossed with a psychotic serial killer”; Christopher Walken as the Emperor; Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan Corrino; Léa Seydoux as Lady Margot; and Souheila Yacoub as Shishakli.
While sharing the trailer at CinemaCon in April, Villeneuve explained he went the extra mile to make Part Two unique. “Part One is more of a contemplative movie. Part Two is an action-packed, epic war movie. It is much more dense. We went to all new locations,” he said. “I didn’t want a feeling of repetition. It’s all new sets. Everything is new.”
Dune: Part Two was originally set to hit theaters Nov. 3 but has been pushed to March 15, 2024, due to the current actors strike, which would keep the film’s star-studded cast from promoting it.