He who controls the franchise, controls the box office. At least, that seems to be the case with Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. In keeping with Tinsel Town’s trend of remaking classics, 2021’s Dune: Part One took on the monstrous task of adapting Frank Herbert’s 1965 book and (unsurprisingly) split its 896 pages into two halves. Although Dune: Part Two completes the story in 2024, there are already plans for more stories in the Duniverse.
As far back as 2021, Villeneuve was telling journalists (via Nerdist) how he could potentially round off his Dune trilogy by adapting the 1969 novel Dune Messiah into a movie. This might be the end of the director’s time on Arrakis, but it’s far from the end of the story. With an expanded lore of millennia that makes Games of Thrones look like a pop-up book, there’s sure to be a temptation to spin out the Dune series for as long as possible. But, could this be a case of quitting while you’re ahead?
The ‘Dune’ of a new day
Keeping up with the various Dune stories is harder than mining spice, as Frank Herbert’s original book was only the first chapter in a sprawling saga that remained under his stewardship until the author’s death in 1986. Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) might’ve been Herbert’s final book, but it was only the start in terms of storytelling. With the sixth book ending on a cliffhanger, the dangling plot threads were picked up by Herbert’s son, Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson in two sequels that were titled Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007).
Even though these finished the arcs Frank had planned, Brian Herbert and Anderson had already taken the reins of a prequel trilogy that started in 1999, as well as the Legends of Dune trilogy that followed a throwaway mention of the Butlerian Jihad — humanity’s fight against computers some 10,000 years before the events of the first novel. Even if we tackle Herbert’s original six books and the sequel trilogy, and even if the rest of the novels were to receive one movie each, that’s still a hefty 10 Dune movies. Long before any of this, Dune’s weighty backstory means we’re heading full-steam into Marvel Cinematic Universe territory in terms of franchise fatigue.
We can’t help but think of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon, which is Dune-esque in itself. Snyder said he turned in a 450-page bible for worldbuilding that spanned 800 years. Dune covers far more than that, and while this is fine on the page, we’ve learned before that it’s not as easy to translate onto the silver screen. Villeneuve himself has shared his reluctance to go beyond Messiah as the second book, telling Empire: “If I succeed in making a trilogy, that would be the dream. After that the books become more… esoteric.”
At least the modern Dune books are still popular today, with the most recent release rounding off the Caladan Trilogy in Brian Herbert and Anderson’s The Heir of Caladan (2022). Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. are on to a good thing here, with the popularity of the books boosted by the movies, and the continued interest in the books giving plenty of source material for future films, live-action series, or other projects without Villeneuve steering the ship.
An age-old problem
Spinning books out into multi-movie outings is nothing new, with Harry Potter and The Hunger Games’ last books becoming two movies, while Warner Bros. dragged out The Hobbit over three. Still, the thought of sitting through that much Dune is a daunting one when you remember how far the later novels stray from Herbert’s original storytelling. With Part One coming in at a beefy 155 minutes and Part Two upping that to 167, it’s not like the saga is a quick watch, either.
If Legendary commits to the monumental task of trying to adapt Frank Herbert’s first six books, there’s the issue of timing. Villeneuve managed to get Dune: Part Two out a speedy two-and-a-half years after the original, and even though filming didn’t occur back-to-back, production did — helping the studio streamline the process. A third movie hasn’t officially been given the green light yet, but as reported by Variety, Villeneuve doesn’t know when he’ll return to Arrakis, saying, “I might make a detour before just to go away from the sun. For my mental sanity I might do something in between.”
It’s doubtful we’d see another Dune before 2028/2029, and that’s if things started to move now. It reminds us of Avatar, because despite breaking box office records twice, James Cameron’s series has been chastised for a roadmap of five movies that stretches until at least 2031. With it being an almighty commitment to the cause, we understand why David Lynch stopped after he released his version of Dune in 1984. More than franchise fatigue, Villeneuve isn’t alone in his skepticism of adapting later entries like the notoriously out-there God Emperor of Dune.
God Emperor is dubbed ‘unfilmable’ by many. Having the son of Paul Atreides play a sentient Sandworm for 2.5 hours wouldn’t even be the hardest part of adapting the 1981 novel — yes, those monologues are a drag. Still, there are those who are dying to see what could be done with God Emperor of Dune, especially as we’ve never seen it adapted before. Beyond the fourth book and remembering WB will be targeting a multi-million dollar franchise that needs broad appeal, it’s hard to see the NSFW Honored Matres and their sexual enslavement working in a Heretics of Dune movie. As for Chapterhouse, adapting its cliffhanger means we’d have to broach the sticky subject of Brian Herbert and Anderson’s sequel trilogy.
Still, there are options here. Dune: Part One’s setting in the year 10,191 leads into a time jump of over 3,500 years between Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune. Aside from potentially locking Jason Momoa into the whole franchise as Duncan Idaho, we could effectively start again from God Emperor and allow the franchise to reset with a largely new cast. Remember, all of this will likely be without Villeneuve at the helm and would be in some far-off future where we assume the franchise continues to make bank.
Worming your way back in
At least we know it’s possible to make half-decent adaptations of Messiah and Children of Dune thanks to the Sci-Fi Channel releasing Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune in 2003. As well as winning a Primetime Emmy, the miniseries is one of the highest-rated programs on the network. That’s a far cry from matching the critical and commercial success of Villeneuve’s Dune, but it’ll be well worth a rewatch for whoever dares take the inevitable task of bringing the fourth book to life on the big screen.
While fans have their own ideas about which direction they’d like to see the saga go in, it sounds like the studio plans on it branching out like a network of Sandworm tunnels. Announced back in 2019, Dune: Prophecy is supposed to be a streaming series that centers on the Bene Gesserit and serves as a prequel to the movies. Unfortunately, it’s already had a tough time, lost directors and showrunners, been placed on hiatus, and even been retitled as Dune: Prophecy.
Spin-offs and prequels taking a non-linear path means we’re not locked into a rigid movie arc of lackluster sequels that could tarnish the once-lauded Dune name, and if we get to explore other pockets of this world’s colorful history, so be it. A series focusing on the mysterious Bene Gesserit is all well and good, but similar to HBO throwing caution to the wind by greenlighting Game of Thrones spin-offs every five seconds, we don’t see everything working.
If Warner Bros. continues to milk the library of source material for all it’s worth, we might be older than Leto II Atreides by the time the studio is done with mining stories from the world that Denis Villeneuve has helped craft. There is no call that House Atreides does not answer, but only time will tell whether Villeneuve has the same attitude. We’ve come a long way from Alejandro Jodorowsky trying to get a Dune movie off the ground with Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, and H.R. Giger, but funnily enough, we’d argue wrangling the Duniverse is even more complicated than it was in the ‘70s.
Either way, settle in for a long and bumpy ride because things are only just heating up on Arrakis.
Buy Advance Tickets for DUNE: PART 2 (Opening March 1) HERE
Based in Manchester, UK, Tom Chapman has over seven years’ experience covering everything from dragons to Demogorgons. Starting out with a stint at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom has since branched out to indulge his love of all things Star Wars and the MCU at Digital Spy, Den of Geek, IGN, Yahoo! and more. These days, you’ll find Tom channelling his inner Gale Weathers and ranting about how HBO did us dirty with Game of Thrones Season Eight.
