‘Dune: Part Three’ May Shift Release Date as Venice Premiere Becomes “Possibility”

Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three” is scheduled to be released on December 18, 2026. That’s the same day as “Avengers: Doomsday.” Do we have another “Barbenheimer” on our hands? “Dunesday?” Or will one of these two films switch their release date — in all likelihood, it’s probably the latter.

Watch out for “Dune: Part Three” to potentially hit theaters earlier than scheduled. An October or November switch would make a lot of sense, especially with the film having wrapped its shoot last month and with close to 10 months left to complete post-production.

That said, Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is telling Variety that he met with Villeneuve this weekend at the Marrakech Film Festival and that “Dune: Part Three” “could be a possibility” for next year’s festival.

Obviously, if “Dune 3” were released in December, odds are that it wouldn’t be premiering at Venice, which takes place during the first and second week of September. However, an October or November release date? A splash on the Lido seems much more plausible.

Then again, is Warner Bros. still scarred by what happened to “Joker: Folie à Deux” at Venice? They didn’t premiere “One Battle After Another” at any festival this year, potentially due to the ‘Folie à Deux’ catastrophe and a handful of other reasons. Will they want to avoid another high-profile festival fumble?

The first “Dune,” released in October 2021, had its world premiere at Venice, where it was met with strong reviews and would go on to earn 10 Oscar nods, including Best Picture.

It’d be quite the get for Barbera, as “Dune: Part Three” has a cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, and Josh Brolin. The DP is Linus Sandgren, who replaces Greig Fraser.