Dune: Part Two completes director Denis Villenueve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's iconic 1965 sci-fi novel Dune, about a young man named Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) who becomes a messiah to a desert people called the Freman and, by the end of the book, the emperor of the known universe! He has an eventful couple of years.
Herbert wrote more books in his Dune saga, and Villeneuve has been open about wanting to adapt the sequel book Dune Messiah as another movie. The cameras haven't started rolling yet, but everyone and their mother knows that Dune: Part Three is happening. That includes Rebecca Ferguson, who plays Paul's mother Lady Jessica.
" is banking and people are loving it, and it has the most phenomenal cast in it," Ferguson said on the podcast The Playlist. "Of course, there would be a third one, but it’s a lot of pressure on Denis. It’s a lot of pressure to continue. And when do you make the creative decision? Do you go when it is at the best, or do you make one that could fail and not be as good? It’s a really tricky conversation. It depends on the script; it depends on the money. It depends on all of the actors that have not got a deal for the third film. That’s a lot going on there. So there’s a lot to take into consideration before just writing a third script, you know?"
Beware SPOILERS for Dune Messiah and Children of Dune below!
Famously, Dune Messiah is a more dour book than Dune. It picks up several years later when Paul is established as the emperor, much to his own misery. After that, Frank Herbert wrote Children of Dune, a more wild, action-packed story that mostly follows Paul's children, Leto II and Ghanima.
Children of Dune has some crazy plot twists, which is part of the reason Villeneuve has said he wants to stop at Dune Messiah. Ferguson seems to agree that the third book in the series a bit much for the screen. "I mean, come on. Clearly, we’re not going to be that close to the book. That’s ridiculous," she said. "Although I would love to see Timothée turn into a worm. As long as my character doesn’t go and sit hot and covered in fabrics, I’m happy."
Ferguson is alluding to the end of Children of Dune, when Paul's son Leto II melds with young sandworms and gains superpowers. The next book, God Emperor of Dune, picks up thousands of years later when Leto II is a half-sandworm, half-man monster ruling the universe from his seat on Arrakis.
Personally, I would love to see that adapted in a movie, and don't think it's riduculous at all, at least not in the context of a movie franchise where Paul's in utero baby sister speaks to her mother from within the womb. People have spend nearly $700 million watching Dune: Part Two. If the talking fetus didn't keep them away, why would Leto II the worm god stop them?
Also, it's interesting that Ferguson seems to assume that she'd play a role in a third Dune movie, but Lady Jessica actually doesn't appear in Dune Messiah at all. She only returns for Children of Dune, so if Ferguson wants to return to the deserts of Arrakis, I urge her to get behind the god-worm story! And we shall follow.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.