Denis Villeneuve’s long-awaited adaptation of the sci-fi series Dune crash landed into cinemas and living rooms in October, and the crowd went wild. Wild! In his review for US Esquire, Chris Nashawaty even went so far as to call the film “the best sci-fi movie of the decade.” Ticket sales at the box office were equally enthusiastic.
That all surely came as a relief to the director as well as Warner Bros. studio, who decided to throw a chance (plus piles of money) at Frank Herbert’s beloved novel despite its reputation as notoriously difficult to adapt. (Plenty of other directors have tried and failed. David Lynch’s 1984 version was widely considered a disaster, and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempt in the ‘70s didn’t even make it into cinemas. Years of production woes and a ballooning budget forced studio execs to pull the plug.)
What seems to have spared Villeneuve’s Dune from the poor outcomes of previous attempts was his crucial decision to break the massive story into two parts. "Right at the beginning, I strongly recommended that we should do this in two parts,” Villeneuve said in an interview with Newsweek. Fortunately, the film’s financier, Legendary Studios, agreed to the proposition, freeing Villeneuve from the unenviable task of shoehorning the 800-page novel into a film that would inevitably have been both too long and too short.
That left the first film ending on a cliffhanger, but now, audiences may be placated, as a sequel is officially en route. Toby Emmerich, Chairman of Warner Brothers Picture Group, announced the news: “Denis Villeneuve has crafted a film that is both visually extraordinary and emotionally transporting, as evidenced by its global success both critically and at the box office. We are thrilled to continue on this journey with Denis and his cast and crew, and our partners at Legendary, and can’t wait to bring the next chapter of this epic tale to theaters on October 20, 2023.”
So what happens next?
In Part Two, viewers can expect Villeneuve's plot to favour the second half of Herbert's Dune, which tracks Paul's rise to power among the Fremen and his eventual rebellion against Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. Paul's journey to becoming the fabled "Kwisatz Haderach" will test his character and imperil his life. Meanwhile, the Atreides family expands: Paul and Chani become romantically entwined, as his clairvoyant visions predicted, and Lady Jessica gives birth to a daughter, Alia, with outstanding Bene Gesserit abilities. We won't spoil all the delicious twists and turns, but rest assured that the outline provided by the back half of the novel lends itself to a thrilling, more plot-driven story. It also means that the cast will have to expand; Villeneuve will need to cast his Emperor Shaddam IV, along with the Emperor's daughter, Princess Irulan, who later becomes Paul's wife. The biggest casting decision is arguably Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, Paul's foil and bitter rival, who becomes the biggest antagonist on Paul's quest for absolute power. Villeneuve has said that Feyd-Rautha will "definitely be a very, very important character" in Part Two.
Part Two will also feature a bigger role for Chani, which will be welcome news for Zendaya fans. After Chani was heavily featured in trailers and Zendaya walked red carpets as Timothée Chalamet's co-lead, some fans were shocked and appalled when she only factored into the film for seven minutes. Part Two won't have that problem. When asked what she's most excited about with Part Two, Zendaya joked to Deadline, "Well, I can be there for longer, which is cool." She went on to tease an expanded role in Part Two, saying, "I want to grow with the characters I play, and with the people that I get to learn from. Anybody who has read the books knows there’s so much more to explore and deal with. What was cool for me, having not been around for much of the first shoot, was getting to see the movie from a completely fresh perspective, because I hadn’t seen the sets and the scenes for most of the movie. Watching it felt like just the beginning of this story."
Chalamet shares Zendaya's excitement about Part Two teeing up a bigger role for Chani. "She is Chani, and it’s incredible to witness," he said to Deadline of his co-star. "From the get-go, she was that character, and it was inspiring to see. I love the shot in the movie of Chani pulling the mask down for the first time; it feels properly momentous. But even on the day, it was like, Holy shit, Chani has arrived. There’s the book, and there have been other adaptations, but not only was the relationship between us alive in Jordan, and not only does it live on the screen now, it was there just at the first chemistry read. It felt obvious."
We can expect most of the supporting cast of Part One—that is, those who survived the midnight massacre of House Atreides—to return for Part Two. Though Oscar Isaac's Duke Leto Atreides is dead and gone, it's possible he could return in flashbacks, or in Paul's prophetic visions. Josh Brolin's Gurney Halleck, fans of the book know, survives the fall of House Atreides, joins a band of spice smugglers, and later reunites with Paul. As for Jason Momoa, whose Duncan Idaho died valiantly while defending Paul and Lady Jessica, it's likely he'll return for Part Two, though not exactly as you remember him. Spiceheads also know that Duncan Idaho is eventually returned to life as a ghola, or a resurrected clone, with no memories of his former life. Duncan's ghola is gifted to Paul, only to later die again, and subsequently be rebirthed multiple times. It's a never-ending cycle and a long-running literary in-joke, so if Villeneuve's Dune franchise leads to multiple sequels, Momoa will likely be sticking around for a long time.
Also returning for Part Two is Hans Zimmer, the legendary composer who brought such a distinctive sound to Part One. Though Part Two has yet to enter production, Zimmer is already hard at work. "I know the structure of the score over Part One and Part Two because I see it as one," Zimmer told Inverse. "And, in my head, I've sort of written the shape of Part Two already. I just sent Denis a text yesterday saying I have all these crazy ideas for the next one. There is a solid way of breaching out in the story musically that nobody has really thought about. But I should tell the crazy ideas to Denis first."
As for Villeneuve, the ambitious sci-fi director seems excited to get back to work when production begins in July 2022—and in a perfect world, he won't be stopped at just one more movie.
"I always envisioned three movies," Villeneuve told Entertainment Weekly. "It's not that I want to do a franchise, but this is Dune, and Dune is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice. Herbert wrote six books, and the more he was writing, the more it was getting psychedelic. So I don't know how some of them could be adapted. One thing at a time. If I ever have the chance to do Dune: Part Two and Dune Messiah, I'm blessed."
In Dune: Messiah, Herbert's second book in the series, Paul's story comes to a close, while Herbert's thorny thematic questions about power, destiny, and messiahs come into sharper focus. While Dune traces Paul's rise to power, Dune: Messiah traces his fall. In this story, Paul sits on the throne after unleashing a jihad that killed 61 billion people across the galaxy. Paul rules the known universe as the most powerful Emperor in history, but various factions conspire to dethrone him. The story ends with Paul, both physically and psychically blinded, wandering to his death into the desert of Arrakis, with his son set to take the throne in the following book.
Villeneuve has his work cut out for him, but he's spent plenty of time preparing for the hefty task. On multiple occasions, Villeneuve has spoken about how he discovered Dune at age thirteen, and dreamed of adapting it ever since. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Villeneuve shared meticulous storyboards of Paul Atreides' adventures on Arrakis that he and a childhood friend, Nicholas Kadima, created as young teens. “Nicolas was a very good artist, so he did the drawing, and I would tell the stories, and we just created worlds together like that as two kids,” Villeneuve said.
With only Dune: Part Two on lock, we'll refrain from getting too excited about the possibility of seeing Dune: Messiah on screen.
Adrienne Westenfeld is the Books and Fiction Editor at Esquire, where she oversees books coverage, edits fiction, and curates the Esquire Book Club.
Abigail Covington is a journalist and cultural critic based in Brooklyn, New York but originally from North Carolina, whose work has appeared in Slate, The Nation, Oxford American, and Pitchfork
