Denis Villeneuve returns to Arrakis for Dune: part two, and he hopes his journey doesn’t end there.
The filmmaker opened in a interview with empire magazine about wanting to continue exploring the desert planet created by Frank Herbert in a third movie based on Dune Messiah if it got the green light.
“If I manage to make a trilogy, that would be the dream,” he told the publication of bringing Herbert’s sequel to life. Dune. “Dune Messiah was written in response to people seeing Paul Atreides as a hero, which was not what (Herbert) wanted to do. My edit (from Dune) comes closer to his idea that it is actually a warning.”
Villeneuve explained that he would be parting ways with Arrakis afterwards Dune 3 and move on to other projects. “Then the books get more… esoteric,” he explained. While he hasn’t yet gotten the green light for a third installment, the director admitted it’s not all in his head. “There are words on paper,” he revealed.
Dune 2 picks up where the first left off, with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) finally reaching Chani (Zendaya) and joining forces with the Fremen to take down the evil Harkonnens. Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård and Dave Bautista also return for the sequel.
New cast members include an albino Austin Butler as Feyd Rautha, whom Villeneuve has described as an “Olympic swordmaster crossed with a psychotic serial killer”; Christopher Walken as Emperor; Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan Corrino; Lea Seydoux as Lady Margot; and Souheila Yacoub as Shishakli.
While sharing the trailer at CinemaCon in April, Villeneuve explained that he was going one step further Part two unique. “Part One is more of a contemplative film. Part two is an action-packed, epic war film. It’s much closer. We went to all the new locations,” he said. “I didn’t want a sense of repetition. They are all new sets. Everything is new.”
Dune: part two was originally set to hit theaters on November 3, but has been pushed back to March 15, 2024 due to the current actors’ strike, which would keep the film’s star-studded cast from promoting it.
