Denis Villeneuve Is Optimistic That Dune: Part Two Will Happen

While there is no guarantee that Denis Villeneuve’s Dune follow-up will happen, the director says he’s “very optimistic” about its chances. Villeneuve spoke with Total Film (per Games Radar) and confirmed that while the greenlight is not guaranteed for the second film, the studios are fully behind it and it would take a spectacular failing at the box office to not happen.

“There’s no such thing as Dune 1 and Dune 2,” Villeneuve first clarified, meaning that the two films are part of the same story. “It’s Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two.” He went on to say that both Warner Bros. and Legendary are fully on board and want the film to move forward.

“We have been hearing in the past few decades that it’s not possible to adapt this book, and that it’s an impossible task,” he said. “I think that in the back of the mind of the studio, it’s still the same! So the first thing was to prove that there was a beautiful, popular movie that can exist, and I think that I proved that – everybody at Warner Bros and Legendary, they are 100 percent behind the project. They feel that it would need a really bad outcome at the box office to not have a Dune: Part Two, because they love the movie. They are proud of the movie, so they want the movie to move forward. And they still did half of it. So, you know, I’m very optimistic.”

The film stars Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, with Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem and will be available in theaters and on HBO Max’s Ad-Free Plan starting on October 22nd. HBO Max also has a spinoff series, Dune: The Sisterhood, in the works with Diane Ademu-John set to write, showrun, and executive produce.

Dune is described as follows:

A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.