Denis Villeneuve is speeding things up. I previously reported that “Dune: Messiah” is set to start production on July 7 in Budapest. Zendaya has just arrived in the Hungarian capital, where she will commence production on the film on Monday.
Villeneuve’s sequel is said to involve an “extensive, multi-location, multi-month shoot,” with returning cast members Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem and Anya Taylor-Joy.
This fast-tracking could mean one thing: Warner Bros. might be serious about keeping that December 18, 2026, release date. And don’t expect Villeneuve to work on anything else, not even Bond, until this trilogy is done.
The big question is how he plans to adapt Messiah. Frank Herbert’s second book is notoriously dense, slow-burning, and not exactly crowd-pleasing. Paul Atreides becomes a full-on tyrant, and the tone is far more meditative than the first two films. If Villeneuve stays faithful to the book, we’re in for a very different kind of movie — less spectacle, more political and spiritual disillusionment.
The recent casting of Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke as Leto II and Ghanima—children of Paul Atreides (Chalamet) and Chani (Zendaya)—strongly suggests that “Dune: Messiah” will include a significant time jump, aging the twins well beyond their newborn status at the end of ‘Messiah’ and potentially pushing the story into “Children of Dune” territory.
One more thing: cinematographer Greig Fraser won’t be returning for part three. He’s being replaced by Linus Sandgren (“La La Land”), which could signal a noticeable visual shift. Hans Zimmer, thankfully, is expected to return for the score.
It’s all coming together now. The accelerated production, the returning cast, the bold time jump, even the switch in cinematographers —Villeneuve knows exactly how he wants to end this story, and he’s not wasting any time getting there. And once he closes the book on Paul Atreides, another dream project awaits him: Bond.