‘Dune Messiah’: Denis Villeneuve Reveals ‘Dune 3’ Script Is Nearly Finished!!

With Dune: Part Two on the horizon, director Denis Villeneuve has already set his sights on a third and final trip to Arrakis. The script for the third installment of the series is nearly done.

Variety reports that, in a recent press conference with the South Korean media, Villeneuve said that the third film, which will be based on Frank Herbert‘s 1969 Dune sequel Dune Messiah, is “being written right now. The screenplay is almost finished but it is not finished. It will take a little time…There’s a dream of making a third movie…it would make absolute sense to me.” However, completing his trilogy immediately, the way the first two parts of Dune were made back-to-back, may not be in the cards. The director notes, “I don’t know exactly when I will go back to Arrakis. I might make a detour before just to go away from the sun. For my mental sanity I might do something in between, but my dream would be to go a last time on this planet that I love.” Viewers might have to wait a while for Villeneve‘s third Dune movie, but the second will hit theaters on March 15, 2024.

What Happens in ‘Dune Messiah’?

After his victory at the end of Dune, Paul Atreides rules the galaxy from the planet Arakkis, but struggles as both a leader and the prophesied messiah of the nomadic Fremen people. Multiple forces conspire against him, including the Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit. Furthermore, he is pressured to have an heir, only for his lover, the Fremen Chani, to die in childbirth. Hoping to see what the future holds for himself and the galaxy, Paul taps into new prophetic abilities, and in doing so is struck blind. Ultimately, he installs his sister Alia as regent until the twins are of age, and wanders into the deserts of Arakkis alone. Herbert followed the book up with four more sequels: Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune.

If Dune: Part Two makes enough money to greenlight Villeneuve‘s third Dune movie, it won’t be the first adaptation of Dune Messiah. There were plans to make sequels to David Lynch‘s 1984 adaptation of the novel, but those ended when the film failed to satisfy critics, audiences, or Lynch himself. However, when the Sci-Fi Channel adapted the novel into a three-part miniseries in 2000, it was sufficiently well-received to greenlight a sequel. 2003’s Children of Dune merged elements of Dune Messiah and Herbert’s third Dune book, Children of Dune, into a single miniseries. It starred a then-unknown James McAvoy as Paul Atreides’ son, Leto II, and also featured Steven Berkoff, Alice Krige, and Susan Sarandon.