The director will adapt the mythos of Herbert’s ‘Dune: Messiah’ novel for the third installment.
On Thursday, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi saga Dune: Part 2 debuted a stunning second teaser, revealing some fantastic new footage from what we believed would be the final chapter.
However, Deadline has reported that a Dune: Part 3 will be released, adapting the second book in the series, Dune: Messiah.
With Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two finally set to hit theaters later this Fall, fans of the epic sci-fi saga have been speculating on how the director plans to capture the full story of Paul Atreides on the big screen, just as he prepares for war against the Harkonnens and the Emperor on the desert planet Arrakis as the battlefield.
While Frank Herbert’s Dune series contains multiple novels that flesh out a seemingly endless amount of lore, Villeneuve has remained focused on delivering the grandest story that still has a massive impact on innumerable worlds beyond Arrakis. To that end, he has revealed that his Dune adaptation will be a trilogy, with the third and final picture based on Herbert’s novel Dune: Messiah, reported Collider.
Villeneuve is no stranger to producing exceptional cinematic sci-fi films, having done it previously with Arrival (2016) and Blade Runner: 2049 (2017), both of which received multiple prizes, including Oscars. He first presented viewers to Herbert’s phenomenal universe in his modern adaption, Dune: Part One (2021). The film follows the adventures of a young protagonist, Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), who gets mysteriously connected to the planet Arrakis. As the plot unfolds, Paul begins to see visions that foretell an impending conflict on an unimaginable scale across the cosmos, with him at the center of it all.
The movie sets a strong foundation by introducing sufficient background information and politicking to establish the conflict between House Harkonnen and House Atreides. The story takes a tragic turn when the Harkonnens, driven by their greed, launch a surprise attack on the Atreides on Arrakis, leading to the annihilation of their powerful lineage, except for Paul, who manages to escape the bloodbath. Overwhelmed by anger and fear, Paul experiences increasingly vivid and perilous visions, compelling him to seek out the native Fremen people and accept his destined path of seeking vengeance.
Paul will become fully integrated with the Fremen in the second film, which will be released in theaters in a few months, while also developing affections for Chani (Zendaya). He still dreads his visions, stating that they “all lead to horror,” and fears the complete control he will gain.
Nonetheless, he continues to demonstrate to Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and the other natives that he is the ‘Kwisatz Haderach’ of the centuries-old prophecy, destined to liberate Arrakis, and he eventually becomes a messianic leader capable of influencing the entire community, for better or worse. This will set the stage for Villeneuve’s third film, which will be based on the novel Dune: Messiah.
@AwesomEmergency tweet announcing the Dune Messiah adaptation in the Part 3 movie. The video garnered over 22K views:
The #Dune Part 3 Movie will adapt Dune Messiah pic.twitter.com/tarAo8SJoZ
— Charlie Schneider (@AwesomEmergency) July 3, 2023
Director Villeneuve has officially announced that his adaptation will be a trilogy, and that he will reunite with previous partner Jon Spaihts to co-write the script. While this will undoubtedly create hype among fans of the films and books, Warner Bros has yet to approve of the concept.
The first film had been released in the midst of the pandemic, when cinemas were only beginning to reopen across the United States and the restoration to relative normalcy was still in the process. Despite this, the film proved exceptional promise with its tremendous box office gross against a relatively large production budget, and then swept the Oscars with a whopping 10 nominations and six wins in 2022.
This pushed Warner Bros. to let Villeneuve continue the Dune saga with his second film, which, based on the trailers, will undoubtedly be on an even greater magnitude than the first. However, the possibility of a third film to complete the trilogy hinges solely on the success of Dune: Part Two.
Dune: Part Two hits theaters this November 3. Watch the latest trailer below:
