In October 2021, directorDenis VilleneuveofPrisoners,Sicario,Arrival, andBlade Runner 2049fame proved to the world that it was, in fact, possible to successfully adapt Frank Herbert’s 1965 best-selling novelDune. The film was a rare box office hit for Warner Bros. during the COVID-19 pandemic and was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won six of them.Dune: Part Twois one of the year’s most anticipated movies.
Updated: August 15, 2025: To keep this article fresh and relevant by adding more information and entries, this article has been updated with additional content by Evan Lewis.
Whether there will be future movies afterDune: Part Twois released depends entirely on Villeneuve, the production team, and the studio. They may decide that they have had enough afterDune: Part IIand move on to bigger and better things. Villeneuve has hinted at wanting to turnDuneinto a trilogy, but is there more beyond that?
Regardless, one thing consistently true with entertainment is that as long as a consistent level of quality remains, there will always be an audience willing and eager to be entertained. With the world ofDune, however, if this is the path taken, the biggest challenge the eventual series may face will not only be maintaining a consistent level of quality but knowing when to stop makingDunemovies.
How Many Films Could Be Made?
Spin-offs and prequel novels aside, there areeight books in the main epic sagaof Frank Herbert’sDune, and all of them are just as thick as the last. These books are in order: 1965’sDune(on which the current movies are based), 1969’sDune Messiah, 1976’sChildren of Dune, 1981’sGod Emperor of Dune, 1984’sHeretics of Dune, 1985’sChapterhouse: Dune, 2006’sHunters of Dune, and finally 2007’sSandworms of Dune.
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Even with all of these books, however, only the first six were written by Frank Herbert himself, withHunters of DuneandSandworms of Dunebeing written long after his death in 1986 by his son Brian Herbert and fellow science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson. The books are based on notes discovered many years after Frank Herbert’s death. Not only that but Villeneuve wisely decided to split his adaptation of the original 1965 classic into two parts because there was too much story to tell for one movie. If this trend continues for adaptations of the sequels, the future could likely hold possibly sixteen or more films in theDuneuniverse.
Warner Bros. Discovery Has Big Plans For Dune
Needless to say, there is enough source material to keep aDunefranchise going for a long, long time. This is by no stretch of the imagination a bad thing, yet it is entirely possible that a franchise based onDunecould outlive its oldest fans and possibly even some of its actors. Not only that, but the books get more and more bizarre throughout the series, with new concepts and powers that only make sense within the world ofDuneitself. An example of this is one of Paul Atreides’s children turning into a giant sandworm with a human face and ruling the planet Arakis as a god-emperor. To say that the story gets weird would be an understatement, and this would be a fact that both producers and the general audience would need to accept if more movies are to be made.
Villeneuve himself has let it be known that he is intrigued by theidea of adaptingDune Messiahas the third film, but there is nothing concrete to solidify this yet. WhetherDune: Part Twois a success (it likely will be) will be what decides the franchise’s future.Dune Messiahwould see the more negative effects of Paul’s immense power shown in detail. With Villeneuve being mostly faithful to the fine print thus far, it is recommended that all new fans of Dune either read or avoid readingDune Messiah; this would be based on if they wish to know what they are getting into, or want to dive in headfirst without a clue.
Dune: The Sisterhoodwas announced in June 2019, two years before Dune was released in theaters. Set 10,000 years before the first film, the series will follow two Harkonnen sisters as they establish the fabled sect known as the Bene Gesserit.Dune: The Sisterhoodis being developed for Max, and it picked up steam following the success of the first film. However,the series production was put on hiatusin February 2023 following the departure of series director Johan Renck and stars Shirley Henderson and Indira Varma. No production start date has been set, and the status of the series is currently unknown, but it is clear Warner Bros. Discovery seesDuneas their next big multi-media franchise.
How Many Films Should Be Made?
As Jeff Goldblum’s character Ian Malcolm said in the 1993 classicJurassic Park, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” This needs to be at the forefront of the minds of producers and anyone who wishes to continue theDunefranchise into more movies simply based on the success of Villeneuve’s adaptation of the first book. Sure, there is plenty of source material to work with but remember that he split his adaptation of the first book into two parts, each of which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make. This means that more films will be made only if they make consistent returns.
Related:Dune: Part Two: How the Film Will Differ From Its Predecessor
While this might not seem like a problem at first, it will eventually become one farther down the line, especially since fans of the original novels agree that the books do become weirder and generally not as good later on. Not only that, but the book series does get, for lack of a better term,Game of Thrones-ey with beloved characters brutally dying and being replaced by brand-new ones, only for them to eventually die so that the process can repeat itself. So there will eventually be a point where all the characters that audiences came to the movies to see will no longer be present.If moreDunemovies are to be made, “When is it time to stop?” will eventually need to be answered.
