Denis Villeneuve did something a lot of people, including me, thought was impossible. He made two amazing Dune adaptations that were also hugely successful at the box office. For good reason, fans are eager for him to get back behind the camera and keep the story going in a third movie, Dune: Messiah. Well, don’t hold your breath, because in a new Vanity Fair piece, Villeneuve refuses to confirm he’ll direct the next film, while making it clear that he wants to leave the franchise in a good position for the future.
“It’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych. 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.”
Villeneuve is right. The third book is very different tonally, and takes place twelve years in the future and would mean Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and other cast members would have to be aged up somehow.
“That’s my problem. I know how to do that,” he said.
Don’t get it twisted; Villeneuve is ready to do other things. He makes it clear that if he does one more Dune film, he’ll try to set it up nicely for another filmmaker to take over.
“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.”
The two Dune films have made over $1.1B for Warner Bros. so it would be surprising if Dune: Messiah doesn’t happen. After that, who knows? Does another director take over? Does it move to television or streaming as with the upcoming Dune: Prophecy series?
