It's official: Dune 3 is happening

It's official – Dune 3 is in development. Dune: Part Two has proved a huge success so far, crossing the $600 million mark at the box office and surpassing the first film's total, so it's perhaps not a huge surprise.

The news comes courtesy of Variety, who confirmed with production company Legendary that the threequel is in development with director Denis Villeneuve.

Dune 3 would be adapted from Frank Herbert's Dune: Messiah novel. We won't go into specific plot details here since that would spoil the upcoming movie, but it deals with the fallout of Paul Atreides' decisions, as depicted in Dune: Part Two.

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"There is absolutely a desire to have a third one, but I don't want to rush it," Villenueve said recently. "The danger in Hollywood is that people get excited and only think about release dates, not quality." The director has also said that Messiah would likely be his final movie in the franchise.

There are no further details on the movie just yet, but we're pretty confident it'd see the return of Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson (though Lady Jessica is not actually in the Messiah novel), Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh, and Josh Brolin. Anya Taylor-Joy would also likely have a part to play as her character Alia Atreides.

It'll likely be some time until we see Dune 3 – while you wait, check out our guide to all of 2024's most exciting upcoming movie release dates. For more on Dune 2, you can also check out our deep dives on:

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film section. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.