Denis Villeneuve plans to make Dune 3, refuses to call it a trilogy

By Dan Girolamo Published September 11, 2024

Denis Villeneuve has mapped out his exit from Arrakis. The filmmaker plans to make a third and final Dune film called Dune Messiah. Though Messiah is considered Dune 3, Villeneuve refuses to call his adaptations a trilogy.

“It’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” Villeneuve said in a new interview with Vanity Fair. “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.”

Villeneuve has been very open about wanting to make Dune Messiah. Written by Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah takes place 12 years after the events of Dune, with Emperor Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides struggling to grasp the effects of a jihad that has killed 61 billion people. How does Villeneuve plan to handle a major time jump with his cast?

“That’s my problem,” Villeneuve said. “I know how to do that.”

There are more Dune novels after Messiah, including Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune. Villeneuve does not have plans to adapt these later works into feature films. However, Villeneuve believes another filmmaker could expand Herbert’s universe.

“Listen, if Dune Messiah happens, it will have been many years for me on Arrakis, and I would love to do something else,” Villeneuve explained. “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.”

Dune and Dune: Part Two are now available to stream on Max.