Dune: Will There Be a Dune Part Two?

The Warner Bros. that took such tremendous gambles 20 years ago is not the same studio today. Instead the model for Dune is Stephen King’s It, which was also broken up into two movies in 2017 and 2019. When the first It came out, there was no guarantee that a sequel would be produced. It was thanks to the first movie’s incredible box office success that It: Chapter Two was pushed immediately into production.

There are, however, notable differences between It and Dune. Stephen King remains a viable brand name in the 21st century, even if his books don’t have quite the publishing clout they did in the 1980s when It was written. By contrast, Frank Herbert, who died in 1986, is less well-known to non-genre readers despite a continuing series of Dune novels co-authored by his son. The first It had a modest budget of $35 million while Villeneuve’s Dune is estimated to cost at least $165 million, if not more. And while the first It featured a cast of relatively unknown child actors, Dune boasts an all-star ensemble which includes Oscar Isaac, Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, and more.

The other difference—and this is the one that could help Dune in the long run—is that the first It movie arguably told one complete story. King’s massive novel took place in two separate timelines, with King alternating between them; the movie simply took the timeline in which the story’s main characters were kids and adapted that. It: Chapter Two focused on the second timeline, with the characters as adults, but with relatively minor tweaking, the first film stood very much on its own.

Villeneuve’s Dune does not have that luxury. The film ends with Paul Atreides (Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Ferguson) abandoned in the dangerous desert of the planet Arrakis after a rival dynasty, the House Harkonnen, attacks the House Atreides and its control of the planet and its valuable mining and manufacture of the consciousness-altering substance known as “spice.”

With House Atreides smashed, Paul’s father Duke Leto Atreides (Isaac) dead, and the Harkonnens taking over the planet, Paul and Jessica seek help from the Fremen, the mysterious native people of Arrakis who live in the desert. With Paul increasingly suspected to be a long-prophesied messiah known as Lisan al-gaib, he and Jessica are embraced by the Fremen. One young woman named Chani (Zendaya) even cryptically tells them that their journey is just beginning.

In other words, Dune: Part One ends on a cliffhanger. Whether we’ll see what happens next on screen depends on several factors.