It was natural to get excited to think of Dune 3 following the huge success of Dune 2. Now, Denis Villeneuve talks about his involvement with the Dune franchise once Dune 3 wraps up. Villeneuve has been credited with bringing a new generation of viewers to Frank Herbert’s tale of conflicting space-bound families by way of adapting the first novel into two parts.
Denis Villeneuve Says Dune 3 Will Be His Last Dune Movie
Speaking recently to Vanity Fair‘s Little Gold Men podcast, Denis Villeneuve let everyone in on his vision for the future of the franchise. Following the massive success of Dune: Part 2, which earned a commanding $711 million worldwide earlier this year, eyes have quickly turned to the possibility of a third installment. However, Villeneuve had been quick to emphasize that Dune 3, based on the Frank Herbert book Dune Messiah, was not a trilogy closer, as it did not fit into the series mold conventionally.
Villeneuve was clear that his first two Dune films were called to be a two-part adaptation of Herbert’s original Dune novel. “First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” he said. These first two films were designed, according to Villeneuve, to be a complementary pair, adapting the events of the first book. According to him, this is a narrative arc now complete.
“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.”
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This possibility of a third film currently in the writing stage, is seen, from another point of view, by the director as he said that It won’t be part of a trilogy because it will have a completely different topic, another story to tell, but still emphasizing individual freedom. As Villeneuve himself put it, “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.”
This distinction becomes crucial as Dune Messiah occurs 12 years after the events of the original book, Dune. This would, of course, include heavy aging of the cast for a film adaptation. Villeneuve acknowledged the challenge but has seemed to be confident in his approach to dealing with it, soothing fans, “I know how to do that,” though he did not provide any concrete plans on how he plans to do that through the aging of the young cast members that include Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Florence Pugh.
Denis Villeneuve Says Other Directors Can Take Over The Dune Franchise
The prophetic director of the very popular adaptation of Dune, Denis Villeneuve, has seemingly been predisposed toward stepping away from the franchise after the third film. Even though the expansive world that was created by Frank Herbert in his series of Dune novels goes beyond the first couple of novels, it would appear that Villeneuve is ready to pass the baton on to other filmmakers, even though he has always spoken of the project with a deeply loving tone.
“Listen, if ‘Dune: Messiah’ happens, it will have been many years for me on Arrakis, and I would love to do something else,” he said. “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.”
It remains to be seen, however, if the actors-who have contributed so much to making these Dune movies successful-would be willing to hang in there without Villeneuve at the helm. The relationship between Villeneuve and the cast has been one of the major talking points of the films thus far.
It’s been anything but an easy road for Dune to get to the big screen. Scheduled for release in 2020, the film was pushed back a whole year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But that wasn’t the biggest blow: In December, Warner Bros. announced it would be releasing its entire 2021 theatrical slate simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. Villeneuve, who designed Dune with an immersive big-screen experience specifically in mind, was loud in his public disapproval of the plan. He was concerned that the stream option would harm the box office for the current film and, secondarily, any chance of theatrical follow-up success. It was a pivotal moment for Dune, which Villeneuve considered inherently a film meant for the biggest screens-a crucial element in the success of the two films that have come out so far.
But Dune and its sequel eventually crawled their way out of the quicksand, performing well enough at the box office to make the franchise an epic for the modern era. Now, as Villeneuve proceeds with the next phase of the series by making Dune Messiah, he is clearly intent on telling a self-contained story that pleases both the fanatics of Herbert’s novels and a new wave of moviegoers. The important thing about the director is that even his filmmaking philosophy remains committed to making films singular and really immersive, promising the future of Dune to keep amazing worldwide audiences.
