The script for Denis Villeneuve’s third ‘Dune’ movie is ‘in the works’

'Dune: Messiah' is coming, but Denis Villeneuve might make another movie first.

By Joe Allen Published September 9, 2024

Timothee Chalamet in Dune Part 2 — Warner Bros.

Director Denis Villeneuve has done something that many once believed was impossible. Not only has he successfully adapted Dune to the big screen, he has turned his mini-franchise into a genuine phenomenon. Dune: Part 2 remains one of the highest-grossing movies of 2024, and also one of the most critically acclaimed.

Given that level of success, it only makes sense that fans are eager to get more from the world of Dune. Anyone who is familiar with the Dune books knows, though, that the novels don’t progress the way you might expect a standard hero’s journey to. Nevertheless, Villeneuve recently gave an updated on Dune: Messiah in speaking with Variety, saying that the script for the movie was “in the works.” Variety had previously reported that Villeneueve was developing the project with Warner Bros.

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#Dune director Denis Villeneuve says that the script for the third film is "in the works." #TIFF https://t.co/5iTjRpVd1p pic.twitter.com/FPKDv3zPoT

— Variety (@Variety) September 8, 2024

In an interview with Collider, Villeneuve said that he would be willing to take his time on Messiah because he wanted to do it right.

“I want to take the time to do it. And I think it would be healthy that I don’t go back necessarily in the desert right away, that I make a little detour, maybe,” he said. “But honestly, I don’t know what my future is right now, which I love because I worked the past six years nonstop. It’s a blessing, but I need that. It would be nice to make sure that if we do Dune: Messiah, I want to make the best movie ever, so I want to just take my time.”

Messiah is the only sequel novel that is a direct sequel to the events of the first Dune, although there’s a significant time jump between the end of the original book and the sequel. It seems like we’ll get Messiah, but it may be several years before that happens.

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Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…

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