Warning: Major SPOILERS for Frank Herber’s Dune Messiah.The latest installment of Denis Villeneuve’s cinematic Dune saga, currently known by the тιтle Dune 3, is advancing toward a late 2026 release. However, Villeneuve’s third movie, which is based on Frank Herbert’s sequel novel Dune: Messiah, should be the filmmaker’s last. Although Herbert wrote a total of six Dune novels, including one further sequel that features Timothée Chalamet’s character Paul Atreides, It would be a mistake for Villeneuve to bring any more of Herbert’s work to the big screen.
Not only would additional Dune movies take Villeneuve away from other film projects, but they would risk destroying the legacy he has built for the franchise. Of course, there will be legions of franchise fans who want to see Frank Herbert’s entire collection of Dune books adapted in chronological order of release on the big screen. The fact is, however, Paul Atreides only works as a cinematic hero for the plot of the original Dune novel and its sequel Dune: Messiah. What happens in Herbert’s third novel, Children of Dune, would undermine the onscreen characters Villeneuve and Chalamet have shaped.
Dune 3 Will Provide A Fitting Ending For Paul Atreides’ Character Arc
Dune: Messiah’s Ambiguous Ending Epitomizes Paul As A Hero
Befitting an enigmatic, messianic hero of science fiction, the story of Paul Atreides appears to end ambiguously in Frank Herbert’s book Dune: Messiah. After becoming blind and having lost the ability to prophesize, Paul abides by a tradition of the Fremen, the people of the planet Arrakis, and wanders out into the desert. By this act, Atreides is literally submitting himself to Dune, which is another term for Arrakis, and an allusion to the planet’s landscape. What’s more, by respecting Fremen customs, he is securing their loyalty to the House of Atreides for future generations.
We can expect Villeneuve to end the character arc of Paul Atreides more or less the way Herbert does in Dune: Messiah.
If Denis Villeneuve ends Dune 3 in this way, then we won’t see Paul Atreides die. Timothée Chalamet’s character will simply disappear into the wilderness of Arrakis, unvanquished but humanized. It will be the perfect ending for a Dune trilogy that centers on Atreides, as the saga’s hero retains the veil of mystery with which he first entered the story.
While Dune 3 will inevitably be different from the book Dune: Messiah in certain aspects, in general terms Villeneuve should remain faithful to the overarching plot of the novel, as he did when adapting Frank Herbert’s Dune for his previous two movies. On this basis, we can expect Villeneuve to end the character arc of Paul Atreides more or less the way Herbert does in Dune: Messiah, honoring his hero’s legacy with a suitably open-ended exit from the big screen.
Villeneuve Adapting Dune: Messiah’s Sequel Children Of Dune Would Ruin Paul’s Story
What Happens To Paul Atreides In Children Of Dune Undercuts Everything Before It
On the other hand, if Villeneuve were to go back on his original plan for a trilogy of Dune movies and continue with a further sequel based on Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune, this decision would completely ruin the ending of Paul Atreides’ story. Children of Dune brings Paul back from the desert in the guise of a mysterious preacher, only to have him publicly murdered in a humiliating fashion by the forces of his sister Alia, against her will.
For the central figure of Dune and Dune: Messiah to die in such arbitrary and apparently unnecessary circumstances undercuts the entire story arc of Paul Atreides. Not only is his death an anticlimax, but it cheapens his heroic acts of survival prior to this moment, as well as his journey into the desert.
It’s clear that Herbert is drawing an allegorical comparison between Paul Atreides and Jesus Christ, who according to the Gospel returned from the desert to preach the word of God against the established religious order, before being killed by the Romans for his actions. Nevertheless, continuing the story of Paul Atreides in this way just doesn’t work in cinematic terms and would not work with what the first two movies have done.
Too Many Dune Movies Would Spoil The Franchise And Prevent Villeneuve From Doing Other Projects
It’s Already 8 Years Since Villeneuve Made A Movie That Wasn’t Dune
Even leaving aside what a Denis Villeneuve adaptation of Children of Dune would do to Paul Atreides, more than three Dune films based on the books would end up killing the director’s franchise anyway. There’s already widespread trepidation about how Villeneuve will manage to make a success out of Dune: Messiah, given that Frank Herbert’s sequel novel is far bleaker in tone and more obscure in narrative terms than the book that came before it. If Herbert’s second novel is a challenge, though, it’s nothing compared to the complications Villeneuve would have with Children of Dune, let alone Herbert’s final three Dune novels.
In any case, as great as his Dune movies are, Denis Villeneuve has too much to give as one of his generation’s most visionary filmmakers to be tied up with a single franchise. Villeneuve has a big next project in the works, a nuclear apocalypse movie set to be unlike any other ever made. Yet it’d be impossible for him to make this movie or any other if he continued with the Dune franchise. It’s already eight years and counting since Villeneuve released a movie that wasn’t from the Dune franchise, 2017’s Blade Runner 2049. That run may have stretched to a full decade by the time the director finishes Dune 3.
Villeneuve Ending His Dune Saga With Messiah Could Make A Perfect Trilogy Like Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Movies
The Director’s First Two Dune Movies Are Worthy Of Their Status As Modern-Day Sci-Fi Masterpieces
If Denis Villeneuve does what he originally set out to do, completing a self-contained trio of Dune movies, Dune 3 could end Villeneuve’s trilogy in the best possible way. Villeneuve’s three-part Dune story would stand the test of time just as Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy has, casting a long shadow over other movies of its age, as well as raising the bar for what’s possible in sci-fi filmmaking. Dune: Messiah’s ending even shares similarities with Nolan’s Batman trilogy, as the fate of Paul Atreides is left unresolved like Bruce Wayne’s at the end of The Dark Knight Rises.
Denis Villeneuve himself has explained that his three Dune movies are not a trilogy, because the first two movies are diptych adapted from a single book. Nevertheless, the three movies will inevitably be viewed as a trilogy by audiences, as they are all part of a single overarching narrative.
It’s not as though the wider Dune franchise will be short of content, with HBO’s reasonably well-reviewed TV show Dune: Prophecy likely only the first of several spin-off series based on Frank Herbert’s other novels, as well as the prequel Dune novels of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. For many more casual Dune fans, however, Denis Villeneuve’s movie masterpieces will be the beginning and the end of the story. Villeneuve should maintain his original commitment to quality over quanтιтy, and make Dune 3 the best possible ending for Paul Atreides.
