Denis Villenueve’s Dune is on track to top the domestic box office this weekend, setting multiple records for an HBO Max hybrid release in the process, so the chances are increasingly high that the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker will be granted the opportunity to craft the second half of the story.
His paymasters at WarnerMedia have already been teasing that a green light is imminent, which is just as well, because fans would have been furious had the sprawling sci-fi epic ended on such a bum note. That’s not to say that Dune isn’t a great movie, because it’s frequently jaw-dropping, but it’s very much half of a whole that deliberately ends without any form of narrative resolution.
Having previously revealed that Dune: Part Two would focus largely on Zendaya’s Chani, Villenueve confirmed in a recent interview with Fandango that the sequel is also poised to up the ante in terms of action.
“I laid the base, the basics of the world; it’s done now. I don’t have to explain most of the world. So now I can just have fun with cinema. That’s what I will say, is that I think if ever such a thing happens as a Part Two, it’s going to be a cinematic party. I mean, it’s not the right word. I apologize. I will say it is going to be a cinematic blast for me. I think that I could create something much more built into cinematic action and less talking.”
Dune does have a few set pieces dotted throughout, but it doesn’t boast the sort of show-stopping action sequences that audiences have been conditioned to expect from a $165 million blockbuster. Part Two grows more likely by the day, though, and Villenueve will be champing at the bit to reunite his star-studded cast and crew from the second the studio officially gives it the okay.