Even though Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is still about a month-and-a-half away from hitting theaters, fans of author Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi series have good reason to already be excited for the sequel. After all, the blockbuster is an adaptation of only half of the first book, and Dune: Part 2 will be the film that completes the arcs and stories that are established. Sadly, we still haven’t received official word whether or not Warner Bros. has given the follow-up the green light – but regardless of when that happens, the director will be wholly ready to get to work.
With Dune having its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Denis Villeneuve has started the global press tour and this week participated in a virtual roundtable with journalists to discuss his new movie. During the conversation he was directly asked about where things stand with Dune 2, and he explained that he is basically ready to get to work as soon as the studio tells him that he can. Said Villeneuve,
The thing I will say is when you make a move in two parts, necessarily, when you do the first part you have to know what you're going to do in the second part. I mean, it has been the structure, it has been dreamed. It has been mostly designed. In a way that there's a lot of elements that are... So I would say that I will be fairly ready to go quite quickly now – to go quickly with a movie of that size.
Continuing, Denis Villeneuve added that production on Dune: Part 2 couldn’t exactly start in November 2021, as there is still a lot of preparation that would be necessary involving the building of sets, the creation of costumes, and working out logistics – but he says that filming could get up and running before the end of next year:
You still need to make sets and costumes. So we are talking about months, but if there is enthusiasm and the movie is green lit sooner than later, I would say that I will be ready to shoot in 2022 for sure. 2022, for sure.
This has to be seen as encouraging news for fans. While the question of whether or not a sequel will actually happen creates a distressing atmosphere, there has never been any question regarding Denis Villeneuve’s commitment to bringing the best possible adaptation of Dune to the big screen, and that’s really on full display here. We don’t know right now whether or not Dune: Part 2 will actually become a reality, but that hasn’t stopped the filmmaker from preemptively doing the work necessary to ensure that if it does, the two movies will together be seen as a cohesive whole (not to mention the fact that he already has plans for Dune: Messiah as well).
What Denis Villeneuve also added is that fans shouldn’t at all be worried about the process being rushed. The idea of Dune: Part 2 being potentially ready to start production less than a year after the release of its predecessor sounds a bit crazy, but Villeneuve noted that his priority above all else is making a follow-up that is up to his own terrifically high standards. He explained,
I am ready to go, and I will say that I would love to bring it to the screen as soon as possible. But the first film, I really had had time to make sure that it was exactly the way I wanted it to be, and I would love to have the same feeling when I make the second part. So that would be the priority. More quality will be the priority.
First things first, Dune has to arrive in theaters, and, as noted earlier, that is now just weeks away from happening. Featuring a cast including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, and Zendaya, the epic sci-fi blockbuster will be in theaters everywhere on October 22.
