• Legendary has confirmed to Variety that Denis Villeneuve is developing a third Dune film.
• While the director has been working on a screenplay since 2023, he is taking his time on what will be his final run at the franchise.
• Villeneuve is also working on a film adaption of Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario.

Everybody knows triples are best, which is why we’re excited by the news that we may get a third Dune movie from the mastermind himself, Denis Villeneuve.

As Dune Part 2 sweeps through the cultural zeitgeist, the director is in talks with Legendary to produce an adaptation of a book, as well as a third instalment for Dune as confirmed by Variety. The book in question is Nuclear War: A Scenario penned by Annie Jacobsen.

“Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency,” reads the book’s blurb.

Together with Villeneuve, this could be a spectacular project and cement the director’s name in the hall of greats.

As for Dune, a third film was almost a given, but before we get our hopes up, Variety has confirmed with Legendary that the studio has tapped up Villeneuve to develop a third Dune film. This means that we’re not even at the production stage so we could be waiting a few years for that movie.

With that being said, Villeneuve has been working on a screenplay for Dune: Messiah since last year but is taking his time.

Once Dune: Messiah is done though, Villeneuve says that he’s done with the property and likely for good reason. Children of Dune gets, for want of a better word, weird and while we understand it’s sci-fi and the genre is weird by nature, we suspect some folks will be put off by just how bizarre things get. Minor spoilers but Children of Dune see’s Paul Atreides’ son Leto Atreides II, becoming a sandworm.

Both Messiah and Children of Dune have been adapted before in a Sci-Fi Channel miniseries that stars a young James McAvoy. We suspect that Villeneuve’s vision is a bit better than that adaption given what he’s done with the franchise thus far.