Denis Villeneuve gives surprise verdict on Dune 3 ahead of sequel release

Sci-fi sequel starring Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya will be released next month

Denis Villeneuve has shared his thoughts on a third Dune film ahead of the sequel’s release in March.

The 56-year-old filmmaker has previously expressed interest in making a third Dune movie based on Frank Herbert’s follow-up novel Dune Messiah.

Warner Bros has not yet confirmed “Dune 3,” but Villeneuve has said it would be his final instalment in the franchise.

“Dune Messiah should be the last Dune movie for me,” Villeneuve confirmed to Time magazine.

The director said last December that Dune Messiah is “being written right now,” adding: “The screenplay is almost finished but it is not finished. It will take a little time … There’s a dream of making a third movie … it would make absolute sense to me.”

The sequel was previously set to release in November last year, but it was delayed amid the historic Hollywood shutdown as the actors’ and writers’ guilds went on strike.

‘Dune Messiah should be the last Dune movie for me,’ Villeneuve noted (Getty Images)

Timothée Chalamet plays the lead role of Paul Atreides in the film franchise and new cast members include Oscar nominee Austin Butler.

Fans have deemed the Elvis star unrecognisable as the fearsome Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, the younger nephew and heir of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård).

Léa Seydoux also joins the cast as Lady Margot, a Bene Gesserit, as does Souheila Yacoub as a Fremen warrior and Tim Blake Nelson.

Reprising their roles from the 2021 film are Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

Timothée Chalamet, Denis Villeneuve and Zendaya (Getty Images)

Villeneuve has described the sequel as “an epic war movie” and “much more dense” than the first.

“Dune: Part Two will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family,” the film’s official logline reads.

“Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavours to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.”

The first film was released in cinemas across the world in October 2021 and raked in $40.1m in ticket sales in its opening weekend in North America, making this the best domestic opening for any of Warner Bros’s hybrid releases ever.