With Dune: Part Two set for release in October of 2023, it looks like fans and cast members alike will have a little bit of time to brush up on their history of Arrakis and the Bene Gesserit before the film goes into production. Despite reports by director Denis Villenueve that the sequel wouldn’t start filming until the fall of 2022, according to reporter Josh Encinias, a producer present at a screening of the film confirmed that Warner Bros. has already set a definitive start date for production, with filming beginning on July 18, 2022.
The second installment in the science-fiction series, adapting Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name, is said to focus more on Zendaya’s character of Chani, an acolyte of Arrakis’s Sietch Tabr and the character calling Paul Atriedes (Timothée Chalamet) to his destiny, who some fans were disappointed to learn has only a minimal amount of screen time in Dune. Villenueve has reportedly already begun work on the script for the sequel, having begun before the project was even greenlit:
“I’m writing [Part Two] now, and I feel like I’m eight years old again. That’s very uncommon for me. It’s the first time I’ve experienced 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.’ [laughs] I don’t know how other people will feel about it. But me? Denis Villeneuve when he was 14 years old? Thank you.”
With Dune already nearing $300 million at the global box office, it was almost no surprise to audiences that a sequel to the story of Paul Atreides was greenlit, but even then, two years will be a hefty time to wait to see his story wrapped up. But Dune: Part Two joins a number of other major films scheduled for release in 2023, including Wonka — also starring Chalamet — as well as Disney’s live action The Little Mermaid, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Exorcist, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Dune, also starring Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem, is playing in theaters everywhere now, and will be available on HBO Max until November 22. Check out Encinias’s tweet below:
via Collider