If there’s anyone bold and ambitious enough to adapt Dune for the big screen, it would have to be Denis Villeneuve. The filmmaker, after all, has plenty of critical acclaim and sci-fi expertise to fall back on with Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, and his 2021 reimagination of Frank Herbert’s world surpassed expectations by delivering the worldbuilding, political intrigue, and slow-burn action that fans of the novels have long been asking for.
In Dune: Part Two, things will pick up from where the first left off. Vanity Fair reports that the upcoming movie is a direct continuation of the story, with Villeneuve saying: “It’s important—it’s not a sequel, it’s a second part. There’s a difference. I wanted the movie to really open just where we left the characters. There’s no time jump. I wanted dramatic continuity with part one.”
Naturally, this means the main character duo of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Chani (Zendaya) are set to return and navigate their way past the central conflict: war. But there are also emotional stakes at play — while Dune: Part 2 is described as an “a war epic action movie”, the director stresses the need for a human element.
“I wanted to make a very human movie, very close to the characters, despite the scope of the film,” he shared in the same interview. “I kept saying to my crew, ‘The most important thing is that spark, that relationship between both of these characters.’ If we don’t capture that, if we don’t have that onscreen, there’s no movie. The epicenter of the story is this relationship.”
Joining the couple are a handful of new faces, including Austin Butler’s Feyd Rautha, the merciless, cruel killer and heir of House Harkonnen, Florence Pugh’s Princess Irula, and Léa Seydoux’s Lady Margot. Many of the returning characters sport new looks as well, with first look images — released exclusively by Vanity Fair — giving a hint of the destruction and war to come. Take a look at a blood-soaked Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) below:
Elsewhere, Dave Bautista’s Glossu Rabban wields a blunt weapon, while Javier Bardem’s Stilgar, leader of the Fremen, holds off the frontline. Off the battlefield, Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) rests in his restorative bath, and Rebecca Fergusson’s Lady Jessica, the mother and protector of Paul Atreides, is now marked with lines of prophecy.
Dune: Part 2 will explore the mythic journey of Paul as he unites with Jessica, Chani and the Fremen as they plot for revenge against Baron Harkonnen for killing his father Leto (Oscar Isaac). The movie is set hit theatres on 3 November, with a trailer unveiled at CinemaCon 2023 promising a scene of Chalamet riding a sandworm.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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