Having poured their hearts and souls into the production, it must have been a tense few days for Denis Villeneuve and his crew when Dune first came to theaters and HBO Max last October.
The filmmaker had been openly critical of the decision to send the $165 million to streaming the same day it hit the big screen, admitting on numerous occasions that there were no guarantees of a Part Two unless the opening chapter hit big at the box office.
Fortunately, that’s exactly what happened. Dune would go on to win rave reviews from critics and fans, hauling in $396 million in total, with Part Two officially confirmed shortly after the first installment’s opening weekend. Everyone who survived will be back on set next summer, and several of them will have expanded roles, including Javier Bardem.
The Academy Award winner plays Stilgar, who popped up for a few scenes throughout Dune. Speaking to The Playlist, Bardem revealed that he can’t wait to reunite with the gang all over again.
“I didn’t know it was going to happen or not. Actually when Denis approached me and asked me to be part of it, he told me in the first one is going to be a small role. But if there is such a thing as a second one, it will be a bigger role. And I said, ‘I don’t care. I just want to work with you. For me, it’s a dream come true to be part of the universe and directed by you.’ So when I have heard by the news that there was a second movie coming, I felt like, ‘Wow.’ The first thing that I got was a message from Josh Brolin, text message saying, ‘See you in the desert.’ O.K. I love it. I mean, of course, I’m can wait to go back to that.”
Dune: Part Two has already been awarded an October 2023 release date, and given the theatrical industry should hopefully be back up and running at something resembling full capacity by then, we should expect the grand finale to perform even better than its predecessor.