Frank Herbert’s Dune was seen by many as unfilmable, especially after more than one attempt had been made to do so. When Denis Villeneuve took on the project, he clearly saw that it was all too much for one movie, as he decided to split Dune into two films. But in recent days the filmmaker has been talking openly about making a Dune trilogy, though he admits that might not work out, because his own two movies may ultimately make a third irrelevant.
The idea, as Villeneuve has discussed before, is to make a third Dune movie based on the sequel novel Dune: Messiah, a novel that’s set more than a decade after the original novel. It reveals the aftermath of the religious war that Paul Atreides inadvertently started, but as Villeneuve tells IndieWire, a third movie may not really be necessary, as the ultimate message of the book it would be based on is already present in his existing films. He explained…
If I succeed in making a trilogy, that would be the dream. Dune Messiah was written in reaction to the fact that people perceived Paul Atreides as a hero. Which is not what he wanted to do. My adaptation is closer to his idea that it’s actually a warning.
The story of Paul Attreides in Dune isn’t really the story of a hero’s rise to power, so much as it’s the story of a guy who gets swept up in a movement that ultimately leads to massive death and destruction on a galactic scale. As Denis Villeneuve says, Dune: Messiah was written in part to more clearly explain this fact to audiences who perhaps didn’t pick up on it in the original novel and saw it as a more traditional hero's journey.
But even having only seen Dune: Part One, it’s clear that Villeneve’s movies are making this fact much clearer, so it seems the biggest hurdle to getting a Dune trilogy may be the feeling that a third movie could be redundant, as it might not add as much to the story in film as it did on the page.
Following the success of Dune: Part One, including winning several Oscars, and being seen by many as one of the best sci-fi movies ever, fans were certainly looking forward to seeing Dune: Part Two, which had been scheduled to release in November. Due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, WB made the decision to push Dune: Part Two's release into early 2024 so we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the rest of Paul Attraides’ story.
It wasn’t confirmed that we would even get Dune: Part Two until Part One was released, so whatever chance there is of seeing the project become a trilogy likely won’t be confirmed until Part Two arrives in theaters, if not sometime after.
