It appears that Denis Villeneuve’s “soft-prep” is taking longer than expected. As producer Mary Parent has revealed filming on the much-anticipated Dune: Part Two won’t commence until the fall of 2022, as opposed to the previously announced summer shoot.
Per Deadline, the producer announced that cameras will start rolling in the fall and talked about how building and maintaining all of these huge practical sets for the ambitious sci-fi sequel takes a lot of work.
“For the sequel, we’re going to have the same approach as we did for the first one — practical sets — obviously as big as they can be in the physical space of a soundstage, and we have a pretty big sound stage here in Budapest,” She said.
Dune: Part Two will continue to follow Frank Herbert’s titular sci-fi story, or more specifically, its second half. It’s unclear if Villeneuve plans to adapt the rest of the books in the expansive saga, when talking about Herbert’s work as a classic of literature, most automatically consider the first novel to be the definitive Dune experience.
Then again, in an age where blockbusters continue their journey on streaming through shows or feature-length spinoff projects, Dune: Part Two may not be the last that we see of this rendition of Herbert’s story.
When exactly Villeneuve’s sequel will release is anyone’s guess, but we’re fairly certain the second part won’t have to suffer through delays that Part One did due start of the Covid-19 pandemic.