Dune 2 Announced By Legendary For October 2023 - "We're Excited To Continue The Journey"

The new sci-fi movie Dune got off to a great start in the US, where it made more than $40 million at the box office over its first weekend. Globally, the film has already made more than $223 million. The movie is described as being Part One in the opening title card, and director Denis Villeneuve has been open about his plans for a sequel, but it hasn't been announced--until now.

Legendary has announced a sequel is in the works, following speculation about when the movie might be made official. The movie is scheduled for release in October 2023, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Villenueve is coming back, as is composer Hans Zimmer.

Unlike the original Dune, the sequel will be exclusive to theaters for its first 45 days instead of coming to HBO Max at launch, according to Deadline.

Dune is distributed by Warner Bros., and it's streaming on HBO Max, but the decision about a sequel came down to the co-financier, Legendary Entertainment, according to Variety. Legendary controls the rights to the movie and gets to decide if a sequel is made, the report said.

Variety reported that the sequel announcement might happen "shortly," and now it has. Still, the reason for waiting so long to announce the sequel is unknown.

The first movie's story ends at the halfway point of the novel, so fans are surely excited that a sequel is coming.

Another issue at play is how a sequel might be released. Villeneuve has been critical of the decision to put Dune on HBO Max day-and-date with the theatrical release. He said, "Warner Bros.' decision means Dune won't have the chance to perform financially in order to be viable and piracy will ultimately triumph. Warner Bros. might just have killed the Dune franchise."

Legendary also took issue with WB's decision to bring Dune to HBO Max and threatened legal action. WB and Legendary settled their disagreements, and Legendary received a payment of the amount it would have made at the box office, based on predictions. Additionally, Villeneuve and the stars of Dune got paid "millions" to compensate for what they missed out on for back-end payments related to the film's box office performance, according to Variety.

Dune carried a $165 million production budget, and that doesn't count the movie's massive marketing campaign. A sequel would have a similar budget, the site reported. Another issue at play here is lining up the filming schedules for Dune's top talent; star Timothee Chalamet is currently filming Wonka, for example.

Villeneuve previously talked about how the movie studios agreed from the onset to make Dune into a two-part film. Villeneuve wanted to film the movies back-to-back, but the studio balked, the director said, in part because Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 was not a huge box office success.

"I think they were a little cold at the idea of investing in two movies right away. I think that's the truth I understood," he said on the Directors Guild of America podcast (via Collider).

GameSpot's Dune review scored the film a 10/10. "Fans of the series need only know this: Villeneuve's Dune is the best possible adaptation of one of science fiction's most iconic works. It's the one you've awaited for over five decades, or since whatever time you first turned a page in Herbert's seminal novel," Michael Rougeau wrote. "The talented filmmakers and jaw-dropping cast have done it justice. Go see it so that they can tell the rest of the story."