Dune: Part Two hits theaters this weekend, bringing with it giant sandworms, Timothée Chalamet in a stillsuit, and the return of desert power. The follow-up to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, released in 2021, is shaping up to be the first great sci-fi blockbuster of 2024.
Here’s everything you might want to know by the time your butt hits the theater seat.
Is Dune: Part Two good?
“In Dune: Part Two,” says our own Austen Goslin, “Villeneuve has matured as a filmmaker. The movie is no less impressive than his previous work, maybe even more impressive. But these moments of visual splendor often come and go with little fanfare, supporting the character and action of a scene rather than distracting from them. Villeneuve has never had this kind of overt visual confidence before. It’s a clear statement that no single visual has to be the movie’s signature moment, because it’s surrounded by a thousand other beautiful, breathtaking images that somehow all feel perfectly aligned.”
Does Dune: Part Two have a credits scene?
Dune: Part Two has no extra scenes in the credits, so you can just sit back and enjoy that Hans Zimmer score.
Can you remind me what happened in the first Dune?
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Photo: Chiabella James/Warner Bros.
2021’s Dune ended with a secretly imperial army retaking Arakkis for the Harkonnens. Paul and his mother escaped the slaughter to find refuge among the native Fremen tribes — but if you’d like more detail than that, we have a full recap.
Who’s new in the Dune: Part Two cast?
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Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Many actors from the original are back, like Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Zendaya as Chani, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica Atreides, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohiam. (And yes, Zendaya is in more of this one.)
New to the cast are Oscar nominee Austin Butler (Elvis), who plays Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, the cruel and cunning nephew of Baron Harkonnen — and the equally Oscar-nominated Florence Pugh (Midsommar), who plays Princess Irulan Corrino, a Bene Gesserit adept and daughter of Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Oscar-winner Christopher Walken plays the Emperor himself.
Léa Seydoux (Crimes of the Future) plays the Bene Gesserit adept Lady Margot, and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Menu) also makes an appearance.
Are the actors really mad at each other?
A small cottage industry of “accounts dedicated to lip-reading and people who claim to be experts in decoding body language” is making much hay out of the Chalamet, Zendaya, Pugh, and Butler press tour. But rumors of their animosity may be exaggerated.
Will there be a Dune: Part Three?
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Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
We don’t know for sure, but director Denis Villeneuve has expressed his excitement about continuing the story of Dune beyond Part Two, by adapting the next novel in the Frank Herbert series, Dune Messiah.
Villeneuve told Polygon that he’s still “digesting the experience” of making Dune: Part Two, but that he and Dune and Dune: Part Two co-writer Jon Spaihts are currently working on the screenplay.
“The more time passes by the more I think I will have the desire to do it, if we have a strong screenplay,” said Villeneuve. “We are working on it right now and we are inspired. I think that we have something strong, but when I’m going to do it — is it my next movie, or the movie after that, I cannot know. I will know when the screenplay will be finished.”