Legendary director Denis Villeneuve will indeed round out his plans for a trilogy, locking in Dune 3’s production, but don’t hold your breath for a Dune 4.
Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune movie hit screens in 2021, to critical acclaim, and solid numbers, earning back just over double its reported $166 million budget at the global box office.
Dune: Part Two released globally in 2024, to even greater critical acclaim, with Villeneuve again co-writing and directing, and the star-studded cast all returning. Raking in just shy of half a billion at the box office, it’s safe to say the sequel was a smash hit.
But what of Dune 3? There’s been much speculation that this would be a trilogy, and now we know for certain whether Dune 3 is going ahead.
Will there be a Dune 3?
Dune 3 is indeed going ahead. After early comments teasing a trilogy of films, Villeneuve’s hopes crystalized in April, 2024. As Variety first reported, a third Dune film is now confirmed to be in the works.
While speaking to Time, the writer-director confirmed his plans to end the live-action work with a third film focused on Dune Messiah: “Dune Messiah should be the last Dune movie for me.”
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The Dune cast has also been chiming in on the prospective threequel, with Timothée Chalamet telling Total Film: “The idea excites me very much. If the time and opportunity comes to complete the story with Messiah, I think we’re all super enthusiastic about that.”
While Zendaya told Fandango in the above video: “Would we be down? I mean of course. Any time Denis calls it’s a yes from me. I’m excited to see what happens. I started Messiah and I was like, ‘Woah, I’m only shooting the first movie. Let me just go back to the first one.’ It’s so much to take in, but there’s no better hands with better care and love for it than Denis.”
When will the Dune Messiah movie happen?
During a December press conference – as reported by Variety – Denis Villeneuve said the script for Dune 3 is already being written, revealing: “The screenplay is almost finished but it is not finished. It will take a little time… there’s a dream of making a third movie… it would make absolute sense to me.”
But Villeneuve added that he might need a break between 2 and 3, stating: “I don’t know exactly when I will go back to Arrakis. I might make a detour before just to go away from the sun. For my mental sanity I might do something in between, but my dream would be to go a last time on this planet that I love.”
