One of the only major criticisms aimed at Denis Villenueve’s Dune, which was also an entirely warranted one, is that the credits started rolling just as the story was beginning to kick into high gear.
It’s infuriating when a movie ends by clearly only telling half of a story, and there were widespread concerns in the buildup to release that Part Two might not even happen should the blockbuster sci-fi epic bomb at the box office. Fortunately, it didn’t, and the sequel was officially confirmed just days after Part One hit theaters and HBO Max.
Villenueve is looking to reassemble his cast and crew next summer in order to have Dune: Part Two locked, loaded and ready to go in time for an October 2023 release, and in an interview with Deadline, Timothee Chalamet teased that there’s much more to come from the operating intergalactic saga.
“We were ready to [go back] back then [when we wrapped Part One]. This story is far from finished. These characters are far from their end points. It’s a dream come true to get to work with Denis once on a movie of this size. And it’s certainly a marathon and not a sprint, so you have to pace yourself. But you don’t want to be weary of having fun. Certainly, in the project I’m working on now [Paul King’s Wonka], I’m learning even more than you don’t have to suffer all day at work. How lucky are we to get to do this?”
Having actively avoided big budget studio films for the entirety of his career so far, Chalamet is now set to shoot three in a row, with both halves of Dune filming on either side of Paddington director Paul King’s origin story Wonka. He’ll be an old pro by the time Dune: Part Two wraps in early 2023, and fans are already hyped to see what Villenueve and his team have in store for the next chapter.