Rebecca Ferguson has confirmed that she will return as Lady Jessica for Dune: Part III, despite her character only being briefly mentioned in Frank Herbert's novel, Dune: Messiah.
"Yeah! I am in it," Ferguson told Games Radar. "Small. Dip in and out, because I'm not in the books. So I wasn't reckoning on it. Denis [Villeneuve] called me and was like, 'Why do I have a feeling you think you're not in the film?' And I was like, 'Because I'm not in the books?' And he was like, 'No, mate, I have a couple of scenes…'"
“I don’t have a big part in this one, [she’s] just barely in the book," she said in a separate interview with IndieWire.com. "I’m not sure I was supposed to be in it and Denis had a little idea,” she said. “The script is phenomenal. It’s really hard to create a film, it’s such a dense book. There’s so much to tell. [Denis] does dip in and out and he does try and he does want to have certain connections and tentacles to the book."
Towards the end of Dune: Part II, Jessica accepts her position as the Fremen's Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and is able to communicate with her unborn daughter Alia, who will be played by Anya Taylor-Joy in Part III after she briefly debuted in one of Paul's prescient visions in the recent sequel.
In Messiah, we learn that Jessica returned to the Atreides home planet of Caladan, and the character doesn't really play a significant role in the saga until Children of Dune.
"Very rarely do I get any more FOMO," Ferguson added. "I quite often am relieved to not be involved in things. I'm the one who comes in and leaves fast. But I think [Dune] is the one… I walked onto set, and I saw [cinematographer] Linus Sandgren and Denis, and Timothée was there. And it just rings close. I knew I was going to leave the next day, so there was a sadness to it. But I also know that the film is epic."
“First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” Villeneuve said of the first two movies in a recent interview. “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.”
Villeneuve has stated that he has no intention of helming any more movies in the franchise, but that doesn't mean Warner Bros. will stop making them! According to a recent rumor, the studio is planning to move forward with at least one more Dune movie, and they might be looking at Gareth Edwards (Rogue One, Godzilla, Jurassic World Rebirth) to take the helm.
The first two movies were big successes, but a fourth chapter would still be somewhat surprising given the direction Frank Herbert's saga goes in after the second book.
New cast addition for Part Three include Robert Pattinson as the villainous Skytale, with Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke as the twin children of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Chani (Zendaya), Leto II and Ghanima.
These characters are only introduced towards the end of Frank Herbert's second novel, before playing much larger roles in subsequent books. Given the ages of the actors playing the twins, this would obviously indicate that Villeneuve plans to incorporate at least some elements of Children of Dune.
Jason Momoa will also return as a "Ghola" of Duncan Idaho.
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 explores 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.