'Dune: Messiah Begins' — It Might Break the Blockbuster Mold (and the Boundaries of One Book)
Filming begins in Budapest and Dune’s next chapter won’t hold back.
The spice flows once more. Production on Dune: Messiah, Denis Villeneuve’s follow-up to Dune: Part Two, officially begins this week in Budapest, with Zendaya already on the ground and cameras set to roll. Warner Bros. appears to be moving at full throttle, with a sprawling, multi-month shoot planned across various locations. Their sights are clearly set on making that December 18, 2026 release date a reality — and Villeneuve, by all accounts, isn’t slowing down.
What makes this chapter different? For one, Frank Herbert’s Messiah is a more introspective and challenging book — slow-burning, deeply political, and concerned less with battles than with the fallout of power. Paul Atreides, now ruler of a vast empire, begins his descent from messiah to something more complicated, more troubling.
If Villeneuve sticks closely to the source, we may be in for a film less focused on spectacle and more on consequence. Sounds risky for a blockbuster — but isn't that exactly what makes it exciting?
There are hints the adaptation may not stop with Messiah. The recent casting of Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke as Leto II and Ghanima suggests a time jump large enough to edge into Children of Dune territory. It’s ambitious, certainly. But when has Villeneuve ever shied away from scale?
"They end the movie with Paul telling Chani that he would always love her no matter what and then Chani leaving Paul and calling a worm. But in the book she sticks by his side, their first born dies, and she follows him. How do we think they will retcon or make the movie ending work for the book? Paul and Chani have a strong relationship in Dune Messiah (at least up to chapter 12 which is where I’m at) and that heavily influences how the story goes on," noted drewboda on Reddit, capturing the wider uncertainty about how this major story shift will be handled.
And there’s more change behind the camera, too. Cinematographer Greig Fraser won’t return for this instalment — instead, Linus Sandgren of La La Land fame steps in. A shift in visual language? Very likely.
Hans Zimmer, however, remains on board for the score. And with Villeneuve laser-focused on closing out his trilogy before entertaining anything else — even Bond — it’s clear he has a vision. One that might just redefine what a sci-fi epic can be.
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