Dune 2: Denis Villeneuve is optimistic the sequel will happen

Last Updated on August 18, 2021

There are plenty of fantastic movies just over the horizon, but Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming adaptation of Dune is easily my most anticipated film of the year. I’m certainly not alone in that regard, but sadly there’s no guarantee that Villeneuve will be able to complete the story with Dune 2.

While speaking with Total Film, Denis Villeneuve revealed that while Warner Bros. hasn’t given Dune 2 the green light just yet, he’s optimistic that it will happen.

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. 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.

I can only hope that Denis Villeneuve’s belief in the film turns out to be correct because Dune really does only tell half of the story. “There’s no such thing as Dune 1 and Dune 2. It’s Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two,” Villeneuve said, adding that he’s in the midst of writing the Dune sequel right now. “I’m writing [Part Two] now, and I feel like I’m eight years old again,” Villeneuve said. “That’s very uncommon for me. It’s the first time I’ve experience it where I’m watching one of my movies, and I have a moment of deep gratitude, of deep joy, and I say, ‘Thank you, life, for having allowed me to bring that to the screen.’ I don’t know how other people will feel about it. But me? Denis Villeneuve when he was 14 years old? Thank you.“

Dune will premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2021, and will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on October 22, 2021.