The original plan was for director Denis Villeneuve to take a break from Dune. As the filmmaker began to put the finishing touches on 2024’s Dune: Part Two, he seemed pretty insistent that while he wanted to continue, and conclude, the story of Paul Atredies in Dune Messiah, he would need to take a break first. But, eventually, those feelings changed and now it seems likely Villeneuve is going to make three Dune movies in a row.
What changed? Well, in a new interview, Villeneuve says it’s because of you. Yes, you. The person reading this. The person who, we are inferring, is a fan of Dune: Part Two. “I was really moved by the way Part Two was received by cinephiles around the world, and I felt an appetite and a desire to see more and a responsibility to finish that story,” Villeneuve said in an interview with Collider. You see? Fandom can be a good thing.
That story, according to the writer-director, is currently very focused on the character we see last in Dune: Part Two, Chani, played by Zendaya. “Chani’s heart is broken, and it’s the beginning of the Holy War and that’s where we left, so in a way, I’d say it’s quite similar,” he said. “I was expecting to do something else before, but frankly, that’s the inspiration that came to my mind as I took a break this summer and was going back and finishing the story.”
Villeneuve has been chipping away at the script for Messiah, based on Frank Herbert’s 1969 follow-up to Dune, for years. He’s spoken time and time again about working on it, his ideas for it, and when he’s going to make it. But it wasn’t until recently, when Warner Bros. set a release date for an untitled Villeneuve event film on December 18, 2026, that rumblings started about it being another Dune. And now it certainly seems like it will be. All thanks to the fans who showed up for Dune: Part Two, turned it into a massive hit, and championed it all the way to the Academy Awards.
In Dune Messiah (which, yes Timothée Chalamet, has been out for over 50 years and is not really a spoiler), we follow Paul after his decision to marry Princess Irulan and rule the galaxy. He’s joined by a clone of Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho and, well, things get proper weird. All of which we may see in December 2026.
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