Dune: Part Two is a 2024 American epic space opera film directed by Denis Villeneuve, from a screenplay he wrote with Jon Spaihts. It is a sequel to Dune (2021), is the second film in a two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune, and is the second of a trilogy of films developed by Legendary Pictures. Timothée Chalamet leads an ensemble cast as Paul Atreides, an exiled monarch who allies with the Fremen to overthrow House Harkonnen as part of a quest to become a messianic figure. Villeneuve produced Dune: Part Two with his wife and business partner Tanya Lapointe, Mary Parent and Cale Boyter of Legendary Pictures, and Patrick McCormick. Funding came from a distribution agreement between Legendary and Warner Bros. Pictures, as well as tax subsidies from Hungarian, Jordanian, and Abu Dhabi governments.
Parent and Boyter pursued the idea of a Dune film after obtaining rights to the novel in 2016. Villeneuve's deal with Legendary mandated the book's adaptation in two films. A sequel was approved in October 2021, and production started almost immediately. Villeneuve intended for Dune: Part Two to explore Paul's evolution into an increasingly unscrupulous character. Principal photography took place in Hungary, Italy, Jordan, Namibia, and the United Arab Emirates from July to December 2022. Creative decisions exemplified the production's expanded scope and changes in visual presentation, such as shooting partially in black-and-white infrared light. Hans Zimmer composed the film's soundtrack, building upon his earlier work in Dune.
Dune: Part Two premiered in Mexico City on February 6, 2024, and was released globally the week of March 1. The film was a critical and commercial success; it became 2024's seventh highest-grossing film at the box office with $715 million, and was chosen as one of the best ten films of the year by the American Film Institute. Critics praised Dune: Part Two for its onscreen world and acting, though some debated the themes and plot development. The film was nominated for five awards at the 97th Academy Awards (including Best Picture), winning two, and received numerous accolades mostly for technical achievement. A sequel based on Herbert's 1969 novel Dune Messiah, Dune: Part Three, is scheduled for release on December 18, 2026.
Plot
Following the defeat of House Atreides by House Harkonnen, Princess Irulan—daughter of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam Corrino IV—records in her journal her father's betrayal of the Atreides. On the planet Arrakis, a Fremen tribe led by Stilgar accompanies Paul Atreides and his pregnant Bene Gesserit mother Lady Jessica to Sietch Tabr. Some Fremen suspect they are spies, while Stilgar and others see signs of the prophecy that a mother and son from the "Outer World" will bring prosperity to Arrakis.
After Paul defeats Jamis in a duel, the Fremen accept Paul. Stilgar commands Jessica to succeed Sietch Tabr's dying Reverend Mother by ritually drinking the normally fatal Water of Life. Jessica uses her Bene Gesserit training to transmute the poisonous liquid and survive, inheriting the memories of past Reverend Mothers. The liquid prematurely awakens the mind of her unborn daughter, Alia, allowing Jessica to communicate with her. Chani and her friend Shishakli correctly deduce that the prophecy is a Bene Gesserit myth fabricated to manipulate the Fremen. Nonetheless, Chani begins to respect Paul after he declares that he only seeks to fight alongside the Fremen, not rule them.
Paul and Chani fall in love as he immerses himself in Fremen culture—learning their language, becoming a Fedaykin fighter, riding a sandworm, and raiding Harkonnen spice-harvesting operations. Paul adopts the Fremen names Usul and Muad'Dib. Due to the spice raids, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen replaces his older nephew Rabban as the ruler of Arrakis with his favored nephew, Feyd-Rautha. Lady Margot Fenring is sent by the Bene Gesserit to evaluate Feyd-Rautha as a prospective Kwisatz Haderach.
Jessica travels south to unite with Fremen fundamentalists who strongly believe in the prophecy. Paul remains in the north, fearful that his visions of an apocalyptic holy war will come to pass if he goes south as a messiah. During a raid on a smuggler spice harvester, Paul reunites with his mentor Gurney Halleck, who leads Paul to House Atreides' hidden atomic warheads. Paul is forced to journey south after Feyd-Rautha unleashes a devastating attack on Sietch Tabr and kills Shishakli. Upon arrival in the south, Paul drinks the Water of Life and falls into a coma. Jessica uses The Voice to compel Chani to save Paul; she gives Paul a mixture of her tears with the Water of Life, which awakens him. With his emerging prescience, Paul perceives countless possible futures and identifies a narrow path to victory, along with a vision of an adult Alia on a water-covered Arrakis. He also discovers that his mother is the Baron's daughter and that the Bene Gesserit orchestrated her union with Duke Leto Atreides to merge Harkonnen and Atreides bloodlines in their plan to create the Kwisatz Haderach.
Paul declares himself the messianic figure Lisan al Gaib after gaining the southern Fremen's support by demonstrating his ability to know their deepest thoughts. He threatens to destroy the spice fields, forcing Emperor Shaddam to come to Arrakis with Irulan and his elite Sardaukar soldiers. The Fremen launch an offensive using atomic weapons and sandworms, overpowering the Sardaukar. Gurney leads a Fremen assault on Arrakeen, killing Rabban.
After capturing the Imperial court and executing Vladimir Harkonnen, Paul challenges Shaddam for the throne and, to Chani's dismay, demands to marry Irulan. More Great Houses (which were secretly summoned by the Baron) arrive in orbit but Paul threatens to destroy the spice fields if they intervene. Feyd-Rautha, who volunteers to be Shaddam's champion, is killed by Paul in a duel. Irulan agrees to marry Paul on the condition that he spare her father. Shaddam surrenders but the Houses reject Paul's ascendancy, so he orders the Fremen to attack the orbiting fleet. As Stilgar leads the Fremen onto the captured Sardaukar ships, Jessica and Alia reflect on the beginning of Paul's holy war. A devastated Chani refuses to bow to Paul and departs alone on a sandworm.
Cast
Anya Taylor-Joy makes an uncredited cameo appearance as Alia Atreides, Paul's unborn sister who appears in his premonitions. She also has the ability to communicate to Jessica in utero. Babs Olusanmokun and Roger Yuan play Jamis and Lieutenant Lanville, continuing their work from Dune. Stephen McKinley Henderson filmed scenes as Thufir Hawat, while Tim Blake Nelson portrayed an undisclosed character, but their scenes were omitted from the final cut. Both actors were given a "Special Thanks" credit by Villeneuve.
Production Development
In 2011, Legendary Pictures executive Mary Parent and her producer Cale Boyter purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune (1965) from the Herbert estate. It took until late 2016 to complete the transfer of ownership as a result of development hurdles related, but not limited, to turnover and changes in legal representation. Parent then began considering a director from a shortlist of filmmakers including Denis Villeneuve. She pursued Villeneuve after coming across a magazine transcript of his interview at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, where he stated creating a Dune film was a lifelong dream. They started negotiating toward the end of the year, and by January 2017, Villeneuve was signed to a multi-picture deal as director, which mandated the novel's adaptation in two films. Villeneuve said he would've rejected a one-picture deal as he believed the book was too dense to be adapted in a single film.
Legendary released Dune in the US on October 22, 2021 through a distribution pact with Warner Bros. Pictures. The film saw immediate box office success, prompting the studios to commission Dune: Part Two the following week. Warner Bros. coordinated a simultaneous release campaign that distributed Dune in theaters and through HBO Max for one month, which drew strong negative reactions from Legendary executives and Villeneuve over concerns about the film's profit-making viability. Hence, the studios approved Dune: Part Two guaranteeing a 45-day rollout in theaters, brokered by Villeneuve as a condition of their agreement. Given that they planned to release Dune: Part Two within two years, the film went into production almost immediately. Villeneuve and screenwriter Eric Roth were already working on the script to a sequel in the time leading up to Dune launch.
Writing
Villeneuve described Dune: Part Two as an "epic war movie" grounded in the relationship between Paul and Chani. The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) credits the director and Jon Spaihts as the writers of the film's completed script. Roth and Craig Mazin are credited for "additional literary material", which the WGAW designates to screenwriters who contribute to scripts in a non-authorship capacity. Roth developed an early treatment, and Mazin was tasked with refining the screenplay within a month.
Villeneuve intended the film's Paul to become unscrupulous to indicate a cautionary tale about his transformation into the long-prophesied messiah, similar to Herbert's treatment in the books. His main approach was to expand Chani's role in the story by presenting her as a skeptic of the prophecy, as such that Paul's character arc unravels to viewers from her perspective. Accentuating this effect is their romance. The end of Paul's arc therefore marks the point at which Chani emerges as the protagonist. It also signifies, according to Villeneuve, the story's shift to a tragedy because "[Paul] loves the people, and their culture, and he will betray what he loves in order to rule, to get power." The director took inspiration from Katsuhiro Otomo's animated film Akira (1988) to plot Paul's arc.
The main characters introduced in Dune: Part Two are Princess Irulan, Emperor Shaddam IV, Lady Margot Fenring, and Feyd-Rautha, Paul's nemesis. The film's Irulan fulfills the role of the in-universe narrator, although not as prominently featured as her book counterpart. She is the first to suspect that Paul is in hiding rather than dead. On the other hand, Fenring has a substantially larger presence as a result of the film story's emphasis on the Bene Gesserit. Villeneuve described Feyd-Rautha as a "Olympic sword master mixed with a psychotic serial killer". Dune: Part Two frames him as a foil for Paul. In appearance, he is bald, chiseled, and meant to exude sex appeal unlike the other Harkonnen. This differs from the novel's portrayal of Feyd-Rautha as a sullen, dark-haired teenage boy.
One challenge the filmmakers faced was their treatment of Alia as, despite being an important character in Dune canon, she is no more than a few years old in the original novel. In response, Villeneuve abridged the novel's chain of events to escalate tension in the plot and establish both the circumstance of Alia's birth and the Water of Life's perceived power. She features in Dune: Part Two as an adult in one of Paul's dreams though does not appear in real time.
Casting
An ensemble of twelve actors received top billing in Dune: Part Two, the majority reprising roles from Dune. The actors trained with David and Jessie Peterson—a husband-and-wife team of linguists—to master Chakobsa, the film's constructed language spoken by the Fremen peoples. Dialect coach Fabien Enjalric was brought on to develop an individual's speech to sound as if they were a native speaker.