Dune: Part Two runtime reportedly close to 3 hours

In but a few short months we’ll be returning to Arrakis with the release of Dune: Part Two, the sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s visionary adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 science fiction novel. The first Dune movie depicted the coup that unseated House Atriedes from power, with their nefarious rivals the Harkonnens taking over as the dominant colonial power on Arrakis. Paul Atriedes (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) disappeared into the desert where they took up residence under the protection of the planet’s native Fremen people.

Dune: Part Two will cover the back half of Herbert’s novel, which shows how Paul rises up to become a living messiah and war leader to the Fremen. Dune is a cerebral, ambitious story, so it should come as no surprise that Villeneuve needs a good long time to tell it. The first movie clocked in at 2 hours and 35 minutes. But according to ComicBook.com, Japan’s Film Classification and Rating Organization has reportedly revealed that the runtime for Dune: Part Two will be even longer: 2 hours and 46 minutes.

Dune: Part Two runtime revealed

Twitter user @GavinCinema first shared the news of Dune: Part Two’s runtime alongside screenshots of the rating organization’s site. If it’s true that Dune: Part Two is 2 hours and 46 minutes long, the sequel will not only be 11 minutes longer than Dune: Part One, but also the longest film that director Denis Villeneuve has yet produced. Of course, we have to give the usual note to take everything with a grain of salt til it’s confirmed by the studio, but considering that the original source for this information is the Japanese film rating organization, I’m inclined to think it’s probably accurate.

What do you think? Would you sit through 2 hours and 46 minutes of Dune? For my part, I’ll gladly watch every single minute of Dune that Denis Villeneuve wants to give me, and I’ll come back for Dune: Part Three whenever it’s released.

Dune: Part Two releases in theaters on March 1, 2024.

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