It’s been on platforms for over a month now and a few since it hit theaters. Dune: Part Two To date, it is one of the great films of 2024, and a lot would have to change things so that it did not end up among the lists of the best of the year. Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring actors such as Zendaya, Timotheé Chalamet, Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh either Austin Butlerthe film was an epic story that largely completed what began with Dune: Part Onebut left the adventures of Paul Atreides and his family. It covered Frank Herbert’s original novel, but not the rest of the series.
Dune: Part Two ended with the victory of Paul Atreides in his duel with Feyd-Rautha Harkonnenand starting his own holy war with the Fremen army and the missiles that his family had kept hidden on the desert planet. In addition, his marriage to Princess Irulan Corrino with the forced approval of Emperor Paddisham IV, who gave the keys to the galaxy to the so-called Muad’ib or Lisan al-Gaib, that is, to Paul, now converted into the promised Messiah. In Herbert’s novels, the novel – titled Dune: Messiah– skips 12 years in time, until reaching a Paul already proclaimed absolute emperor of the universe, but not for that reason with fewer problems to deal with.
Paul’s way of governing after his crusade begins to raise certain doubts among the more orthodox factions of the Fremen, who see how part of their culture has begun to dilute and almost get lost in their expansion throughout the galaxy. And that is where the problems begin. That is, Dune Messiah The film has very little to do with the first film in terms of story and tone, so it is very likely that the same will happen with the film. However, it is confirmed that this film is in progress and Denis Villeneuve himself confirmed that he is outlining the script for what would be the third installment of the saga. However, it would be the last with the Canadian director at the helm: “If I can make a trilogy, that would be the dream. It was written in reaction to people perceiving Paul Atreides as a hero. Which is not what he wanted to do. My adaptation is closer to his idea that it is actually a warning”said the director in an interview.
Dune: Messiah has no confirmed release date yet, but it is Denis Villeneuve’s next film, as several media outlets are saying. Whether or not this is the third part of Dune It remains to be seen, although it is assured that this is the case from different sources. If confirmed, we would be talking about December 2026 to see the end of the trilogy and also that of Villeneuve at the helm of the saga, since he assured that it would not continue after the third episode: “It should be the last movie of Dune for meThe most curious thing is that, if that date of December 18, 2026 is maintained, we would be talking about a more than possible war between two great intergalactic franchises.
Because Star Warswhich is now immersed in the series of The Acolytealso has a film scheduled for those same dates. Anything can happen between now and 2026, but both universes are in full development and reconstruction and it would not be surprising if they ended up coinciding at the box office, as happened with two other big releases such as Oppenheimer and Barbie last summer.
