Dune movie release gets pushed to late October 2021

Timothée Chalamet in Dune
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

The Dune wait grows longer, as the sci-fi epic has been delayed a few more weeks, reports Variety

Dune will now be released on October 22 instead of October 1. As far as delays go, this one's pretty small (just three weeks), but Dune has been moved around quite a few times due to COVID-19. Denis Villeneuve's Dune was initially meant to release on December 18, 2020, but was delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. Now, Warner Bros. has shuffled around some of its upcoming release dates, resulting in the additional delay.

The Warner Bros. reshuffling has resulted in The Many Saints of Newark – the Sopranos prequel – getting pushed one week, into Dune's original spot. Cry Macho, an upcoming Clint Eastwood film (yes, it's called that) has been moved up to September 17, as Dune replaced its October 22 spot. 

Dune stars Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, and Stellan Skarsgård. Chalamet will play Paul Atreides, the son of a Duke (Oscar Isaac) in a world set far, far into our future. The Atreides family is relocated from their lush, green home planet to the harsh desert planet Arrakis, where they're forced to adjust in more ways than one. Dune is famously dense, featuring some pretty in-depth philosophical arguments, religious commentary, and a slew of difficult-to-pronounce names (like Kwisatz Haderach, good luck with that). 

The film is based on the book by Frank Herbert, which spawned a lengthy series and several spinoffs, and more than one film (including one by David Lynch, which is absolutely what you'd expect). If you want to get Dune ready so you can sound super smart chatting about it in line for the theater, check out our guide to the Dune books

If you need a general refresher of what to expect from Villeneuve's take on the notoriously tough subject matter, check out the Dune trailer. The director has made visually impressive films like Blade Runner 2042 and Arrival, so it certainly seems like Herbert's sacred sci-fi text is in good hands. 

Dune might be a theatrical release after all, despite Warner Bros. previously saying that it would end up on HBO Max the same time as it released in theaters.

Alyssa Mercante

Alyssa Mercante is an editor and features writer at GamesRadar based out of Brooklyn, NY. Prior to entering the industry, she got her Masters's degree in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University with a dissertation focusing on contemporary indie games. She spends most of her time playing competitive shooters and in-depth RPGs and was recently on a PAX Panel about the best bars in video games. In her spare time Alyssa rescues cats, practices her Italian, and plays soccer.