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Dune 3 is coming sooner than its director originally planned

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Timothee Chalamet stands near a desert wall in a still from the movie Dune: Part Two.
Timothee Chalamet in Dune: Part Two Warner Bros. / Warner Bros.

Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve‘s return to Arrakis is coming sooner than anyone — including him — thought. The filmmaker stated several months ago that he planned to take a bit of a break between Dune: Part Two and its intended sequel, Dune: Messiah. However, coming off the immense success of Dune: Part Two earlier this year, which received rave reviews from both critics and casual moviegoers alike and earned over $700 million at the box office, it sounds like Villeneuve has thrown his original vacation plans out the window.

Speaking with Deadline, the French Canadian filmmaker revealed that he is going to go “back behind the camera faster” than he thought he would and that his “break” from Frank Herbert’s Dune world is already over. “I’m in the writing zone right now,” he said, referencing the script for Dune: Messiah. Villeneuve did not confirm the specific timeline he now has in mind for the sequel, but he did note that he is likely going to make Messiah much faster than he originally planned.

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“Let’s say that I thought that after Part Two that I will take a break, that I will go back in the woods and stay in the woods for a while to recover. But the woods weren’t really suiting me, and I would go back behind the camera faster than I think,” Villeneuve explained. “That’s all I can say.”

Paul Atreides walks through the desert in Dune: Part Two.
Warner Bros. Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures

The director didn’t reveal during his conversation with Deadline when he intends to actually start filming Dune: Messiah. “These movies take a lot of time to be made, so it’s best not to say out loud when I might shoot,” he noted. He did, however, reportedly react to a potential 2026 start date with a “perplexed” expression. Whether that means he intends to shoot the film before 2026 or at some point in that year remains to be seen. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. did, notably, set a December 18, 2026, release date for Villeneuve’s next “event film.” Assuming that project is indeed Dune: Messiah, Villeneuve would have to start shooting it much earlier than 2026 to meet that date.

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The filmmaker did confirm that most of Dune: Part Two‘s core cast members will return in Dune: Messiah, including Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Florence Pugh. Anya Taylor-Joy will also appear in the sequel after making a brief cameo as an adult version of Paul Atreides’ sister Alia in Dune: Part Two. The director went on to remark that Dune: Messiah, which he says will “finish the Paul Atreides arc,” will be “completely different” from its two predecessors.

“The story takes place like 12 years after where we left the characters at the end of Part Two,” he teased. “Their journey, their story is different this time, and that’s why I always say that while it’s the same world it’s a new film with new circumstances.”

Dune: Messiah does not yet have an official release date. Both Dune: Part One and Part Two are available to stream now on Max.

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Alex Welch
Alex Welch
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Alex is a writer and critic who has been writing about and reviewing movies and TV at Digital Trends since 2022. He was…
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