A very high standard is set for Dune 3 by the revolutionary critical reception to Denis Villenueve’s Dune: Part Two, which is made even more difficult by the film’s source material. Dune: Part Two continues where Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune left off, narrating the latter half of that work. Since the first reviews started to come in on February 21, Dune: Part Two has maintained an almost flawless 97% Rotten Tomatoes score, placing it in the same exclusive category as other beloved movies and masterpieces like Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and The Godfather.

On March 1, 2023, Dune: Part Two will be released in theaters. In some places, advance screenings will take place on February 29. The movie is already positioned to be one of 2024’s biggest blockbusters, and it’s highly likely that it will top the box office charts during the forthcoming spring season. In addition to welcoming newbies like Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Anya Taylor-Joy, Dune 2 will include a number of returning cast members, making for an incredibly iconic group. A week before the 96th Academy Awards, the debut of Dune 2 is predicted to become the first cultural theatrical event since 2023’s “Barbenheimer”.

It Will Be Difficult for Dune 3 to Equal Dune 2’s Rotten Tomatoes Score

With an incredible 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Dune: Part Two is expected to do well at the box office and generate attention for the awards season by this time next year. A little problem with the almost flawless critical score is that it can create unachievable expectations for Dune 3, making it harder to achieve such a high score because of the inevitable Dune 2 comparisons. Numerous commentators have already dubbed Dune: Part Two Denis.

The events of the first novel will essentially come to an end in Dune: Part Two, suggesting that the third Dune movie will be an adaptation of the second book, Dune: Messiah. The 1969 novel Dune: Messiah expands the storyline to perhaps more bizarre regions and may prove to be even more difficult to adapt than the first one. Denis Villeneuve has been announced as the director and writer of the adapted screenplay for Dune 3, which the auteur filmmaker has said is almost finished. Variety claims that Villeneuve intends to investigate other endeavors for a while before launching into the filming of his Dune: Messiah adaption.

It is perhaps ideal for Villeneuve and Warner Bros. to give some distance between the Dune 2 and Dune 3 films, given the tremendous anticipation surrounding Dune: Part Two and the narrative shift between Dune and Dune: Messiah. Prior to Dune: Part Two’s 2023 twin WGA and SAG strikes, it was scheduled for release in October 2023, nearly exactly two years after the original Dune film. Even Villeneuve has stated that he would like to give the franchise some breathing room, thus Dune: Messiah may not come out until 2026 or 2027, at the most.

The greatest thing for the Dune film franchise would be to delay the release of the Dune 3 adaptation. This would allow Dune: Part Two’s influence to linger for a little longer and offer Dune 3 a good chance of surpassing it. Even while Warner Bros. would benefit financially from releasing Dune 3 as soon as possible, it would be far more difficult for the film to catch up to Dune 2. In addition to being consistent with the chronological leap between the books, Villeneuve’s far longer pause appears to have been intentional to assist Dune 3 stand alone and avoid being too closely associated with Dune: Part Two.