Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve recently shared a positive update on Warner Bros.' plans for a third movie, confirming that the script for an adaptation of Dune: Messiah is officially in the works.
Villeneuve also confirmed (though it really didn't come as much of a surprise) that Anya Taylor-Joy will return as Alia Atreides following her brief cameo in the last movie.
In Part One, we learn that Paul Atreides' mother, the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica, is pregnant with the late Duke Leto's child. When the Fremen take in the survivors of the Harkonnen massacre, Jessica agrees to become the tribe's new Reverend Mother (she isn't really given a choice) and is "persuaded" to drink the Water of Life (a blue substance that's been extracted from a juvenile sandworm).
This gives Jessica incredible foresight and knowledge of previous generations, while also awakening similar abilities in her unborn daughter, who begins to communicate with and seemingly influence her mother's actions.
When Paul ingests the same liquid later on in the movie, he sees a vision of his now grown sister Alia (Taylor-Joy) standing by an ocean on Arrakis. She tells her brother that she loves him and is waiting for him.
Now, Taylor-Joy has spoken about her Dune: Messiah return for the first time - though she really doesn't give much away.
“Yeah, the film is being made, and I am so thrilled to be a part of it,” The Gorge star tells Collider, adding, “I’m such a big fan of everybody that’s a part of that project and I just can’t wait."
Taylor-Joy declined to comment on the size of Alia's role in the third film, but Villeneuve has already made it clear that the character will have a "much bigger" part to play.
“First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” Villeneuve said of the first two movies during a recent interview with Vanity Fair. “It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.”
The saga continues as award-winning filmmaker Denis Villeneuve embarks on Dune: Part Two, the next chapter of Frank Herbert’s celebrated novel Dune, with an expanded all-star international ensemble cast. The film, from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, is the highly anticipated follow-up to 2021’s six-time Academy Award-winning Dune.
The big-screen epic continues the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s acclaimed bestseller Dune with returning and new stars, including Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet (Wonka, Call Me by Your Name), Zendaya (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Malcolm & Marie, Euphoria), Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning), Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (Avengers: Endgame, Milk), Oscar nominee Austin Butler (Elvis, Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood), Oscar nominee Florence Pugh (Black Widow, Little Women), Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor: Love and Thunder), Oscar winner Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter,), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Fences), Léa Seydoux (James Bond, Crimes of the Future), with Stellan Skarsgård (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (45 Years, Assassin’s Creed), and Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Being the Ricardos).
Dune: Part Two will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.