Dune director Denis Villeneuve explains why he's out after Dune: Part Three

Denis Villeneuve has gained a lot of notoriety over the past few years as the director of the Dune movies. Together, Dune: Parts One and Two adapt the whole of Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi classic about a young man — Paul Atreides — who moves to a desert planet with his family and ends the novel as the emperor of the damn universe.

Herbert actually wrote five more Dune novels after the original (and then his son wrote 17 more after that). Villeneuve is currently at work on adapting the second Dune book, Dune Messiah, into a movie, although after that it sounds like he's eager to leave behind Arrakis. The guy had basically no break between making Parts One and Two, and as meaningful as making the Dune movies has been for him (the inscription on his high school ring read “muad’dib,” one of Paul Atreides' many monikers — he doesn't want to be in the desert forever.

"First, It's important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych. It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book," Villeneuve told Vanity Fair (a diptych, if you're wondering, is an art object where two flat plates form a pair).. "That's done and that's finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it's not like a trilogy. It's strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity."

Making Dune Messiah feel different shouldn't be hard. For one thing, it's set years after the end of Dune, when Paul is well-established as emperor. Villeneuve assures Vanity Fair that he has a plan to make the cast seem older. Again, that doesn't sound hard to do. Timothée Chalamet, who played Paul in the first two movies, was older than Paul was in the book, but he still pulled it off. I imagine it'd be pretty easy for him to play a slightly older Paul when it comes time to film Messiah. Also, three simple words: grow a mustache. For another, Dune Messiah is a much slower, more internal story than the first Dune book. It's detined to feel different.

As for what comes after Messiah, Villeneuve sounds like he's going to leave that up to the studio. "Listen, if Dune: Messiah happens, it will have been many years for me on Arrakis, and I would love to do something else," the director said. "I think that it would be a good idea for me to make sure that, in Messiah, there are the seeds in the project if someone wants to do something else afterwards, because they are beautiful books. They are more difficult to adapt. They become more and more esoteric. It's a bit more tricky to adapt, but I'm not closing the door. I will not do it myself, but it could happen with someone else."

If Dune Messiah is as big a hit as the first two Dune movies, I think more are all but inevitable. Villeneuve is right that the books get stranger and more esoteric as they go along, but the immediate sequel to Messiah, Children of Dune, is still pretty accessible and fun. I bet we get that book turned into a movie (or movies) at a minimum.

Finally, it's interesting that Villeneuve keeps saying things like "if" Dune Messiah happens and "if" I do a third one. I think he's just being coy; Warner Bros. Discovery already has an "untitled Denis Villeneuve film" on its schedule for December of 2026; I think he's basically locked in. But after that, bye bye, Arrakis.

In the meanwhile, HBO has a new Dune TV show premiering later this year: Dune: Prophecy will air in November.

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