No surprise here: Dune: Part Three is officially happening

Dune: Part Two, which adapts the back half of Frank Herbert's classic 1965 sci-fi novel Dune, dropped into theaters in March. It tells the story of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), the scion of a noble house who becomes a messiah-like figure to a group of desert warriors before taking his revenge against the people who ruined his family...and then things spin out of control, and those desert warriors go wage a brutal "holy war" in his name. But that's mostly a topic for the next book in the series, Dune Messiah.

Dune director Denis Villeneuve has long said he wants to adapt Dune Messiah to film, closing out a Dune trilogy. "I always envisioned three movies," he 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."

Considering that Dune: Part Two has brought in over $600 million and counting at the box office thus far, we always expected that Villeneuve would get to make that third movie. The executives at Legendary Entertainment haven't been subtle. “We’re all actively engaged in Dune: Part Three. That’s what I’ll say for right now,” CEO Josh Grode said less than a week after Part Two opened in theaters. So it's no shock at all to hear that Legendary is officially moving ahead with Dune: Part Three, according to EW.

Again, this is no surprise. Actors like Florence Pugh (Princess Irulan) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Alia) were basically brought into Dune: Part Two so they could play bigger roles in Dune: Part Three. This was always going to happen. What I'm more curious about is what happens after that. (Beware SPOILERS for the Dune series ahead.)

Dune: Part Three is a go, but what about Dune: Part Four?

Villeneuve seems to see Dune Messiah as the end of Paul's journey. And it certainly does bring about some huge changes in his life. Without giving away all the details, while the first Dune book ends with Paul ascendent — he basically ends the book as the new emperor of the universe — in Dune Messiah, he loses everything, as conspirators plot against his rule and he learns that his prescience, while powerful, has limits. It's all part of author Frank Herbert's bigger message about the danger of charismatic leaders being given too much power. Things slip away from Paul, and by the of Dune Messiah, it seems like his story is over.

...it isn't, though. Paul returns one more time in Children of Dune, the third Dune book, albeit in a more limited capacity. I get the idea that Villeneuve doesn't want to adapt Children of Dune, because he keeps talking about Dune Messiah marking the end of Paul's journey, even though there's more story after that.

Villeneuve has also said that after Dune Messiah the Dune books become more "esoteric," which I think is his polite way of saying "batsh*t nuts." It's true that the Dune books get weirder and wilder as they go on, and I wouldn't blame Villeneuve for being hesitant to adapt say, God Emperor of Dune, the fourth book in the series, which spends most of its time at the feet of a giant half-sandworm/half-human king listening to him philosophize about the nature of existence.

But Children of Dune is pretty straightforward, possibly even moreso than Messiah, which is a downbeat, internal sort of book. Children of Dune features a lot of the same characters we've gotten to know in the first two Dune movies. It has the bleak tone that Dune books are known for, but there are a good number of action scenes that could play well in a movie theater, and the character drama is pretty juicy. The Sci-Fi Channel even adapted Children of Dune as a miniseries in 2003, so we know it can be done. Susan Sarandon and James McAvoy were in this thing, how esoteric could it really be?

Again, I get the feeling that Villeneuve doesn't want to adapt Children of Dune, and that's fair. But I hope someone does, because it's a good story. Warner Bros. Discovery seems like it's going all-in on the Dune franchise — there's a prequel TV show called Dune: Prophecy that could be coming to Max as early as this year — so assuming that Dune: Part Three is a hit whenever it comes out, I think they'll put someone to work on Children of Dune.

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