From the second Dune began rolling out internationally last month, director Denis Villenueve would have been keeping his fingers crossed in the hopes that his epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel would prove popular enough with audiences to guarantee a sequel.
As fate would have it, just days after the movie scored Warner Bros.’ biggest domestic opening weekend at the box office since October 2019, it was confirmed that Legendary Pictures had given the green light for Dune: Part Two to start ramping up pre-production, with an October 2023 release date already locked in.
Villenueve doesn’t want to stop there, though, and after admitting a few months back that he even had plans for a third film in the back of his mind, the filmmaker confirmed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he wants to bring Dune Messiah to the big screen.
“I always envisioned three movies. It’s not that I want to do a franchise, but this is Dune, and Dune is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice. Herbert wrote six books, and the more he was writing, the more it was getting psychedelic, so I don’t know how some of them could be adapted. One thing at a time. If I ever have the chance to do Dune: Part Two and Dune Messiah, I’m blessed.”
If both halves of Dune turn enough of a profit to justify the outlay for a third mega budget blockbuster, then Warner Bros. and Legendary are highly likely to approve the idea of a trilogy-closing chapter. Part One has already been winning rave reviews and will be within touching distance of $300 million globally by the end of this week, while the pandemic surely won’t be a factor by the time Part Two arrives, so it’s hardly out of the question.