Earlier this year, one of the bigger 2024 movie releases arrived in the form of Dune: Part Two, which followed just under a year and a half after Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune movie and adapted the second half of Frank Herbert’s original 1965 novel. But he’s isn’t done with this sci-fi property just yet, as the filmmaker is set to helm Dune 3, i.e. a film adaptation of Dune Messiah, the second installment in Herbert’s original book series. That said, Villeneuve has now explained why we shouldn’t view his Dune movies collectively as one trilogy.
Fresh off saying at he would be leaving the Toronto International Film Festival to continue working on the Dune 3 script, new comments from Denis Villeneuve on the upcoming movie have surfaced thanks to his interview with Vanity Fair. After it was pointed out that Dune: Part Two’s ending “left us wanting more,” the director was asked where he’s at in the process of adapting Dune Messiah, and he responded:
First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych. It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.
Although Dune and Dune: Part Two didn’t shoot back-to-back since it was unclear if the former would perform well enough to warrant Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary greenlighting the latter, from Villeneuve’s perspective, working on those two movies combined into one long creative process. Between that and them both covering the original Dune novel, whenever the filmmaker begins shooting Dune 3, it’ll feel like its own creative endeavor rather than an extension of what he did with his previous Dune movies. So while it’s obviously fine to call this saga a film series, he’d prefer it you don’t think of this trio of flicks as a trilogy.
Of course, Herbert went on to write four more Dune books after Messiah, and his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have expanded this mythology through their own books. So there’s a good chance that this Dune film series could stretch past just three installments. If that happens though, Denis Villeneuve won’t be the one directing. As he explained:
Listen, if ‘Dune: Messiah’ happens, it will have been many years for me on Arrakis, and I would love to do something else. I think that it would be a good idea for me to make sure that, in Messiah, there are the seeds in the project if someone wants to do something else afterwards, because they are beautiful books. They are more difficult to adapt. They become more and more esoteric. It’s a bit more tricky to adapt, but I’m not closing the door. I will not do it myself, but it could happen with someone else.
The later Dune books definitely have a significantly different vibe to them compared to the one that started it all, though that’s not to say they still couldn’t be adapted effectively. Regardless, it’ll be up to another filmmaker to pull that off, although I do wonder if Denis Villeneuve might be willing to stick around as an executive producer. For now, fans of the two Dune movies he’s made so far should just be thankful he’s willing to have one last go-around with Dune 3.
Although the film adaptation of Dune Messiah doesn’t officially have a release date yet, there is a “Denis Villeneuve Event Film” slotted for December 18, 2026, so it’s easy enough to put two and two together there. Use your Max subscription to stream Dune and Dune: Part Two while waiting for more news on Dune 3.