Summary

• Dune 2's incredibly high Rotten Tomatoes score and critical success raises the stakes for Dune 3, based on the novel Dune: Messiah.
• Dune: Part Two has maintained a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 97% since its first reviews were released.
• Prolonging the release of Dune 3 could take some of the pressure off as weel as align with the narrative time jump.

The groundbreaking critical response to Denis Villenueve's 97% Rotten Tomatoes score for Dune: Part Two has maintained its near-perfect status since the first reviews came pouring in on February 21, instantly setting it in an elite category with other classic films and masterpieces such as Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and The Godfather.

Dune: Part Two will be released in theaters on March 1, 2023, with some preview screenings available on February 29 in certain locations. The film is already looking to be one of the biggest blockbusters of 2024 and will almost certainly top the charts at the 2024 box office throughout the Spring months. 96th Academy Awards.

Dune 3 Faces A Big Challenge In Matching Dune 2's Rotten Tomatoes Score

Dune 2 could set an insurmountable standard for the franchise

Dune: Part Two's outstanding 97% Rotten Tomatoes score is a great sign of its impending box office success and eventual awards season buzz which will occur around this time next year. One slight issue with the near-perfect critical score is how it could potentially set insurmountable expectations for Dune 3, adding to the difficulty of earning such a high critical mark with unavoidable comparisons to Dune 2. With many critics already calling Dune: Part Two Denis Villeneuve's greatest cinematic achievement, the franchise could experience a scenario similar to The Empire Strikes Back and The Dark Knight.

Dune: Part Two will effectively conclude the events of the first book, indicating that the third Dune film will be an adaptation of the second book, Dune: Messiah. Dune: Messiah, which was published in 1969, takes the narrative to arguably weirder places and could become even harder to adapt than that first book. Denis Villeneuve is attached to direct and write the adapted screenplay for Dune 3, which has been confirmed to be nearly completed by the auteur filmmaker. According to Variety, Villeneuve hopes to take some time to explore other projects before diving headfirst into shooting his Dune: Messiah adaptation.

Why Dune 3 Will Be Very Different To Dune Parts 1 & 2

Dune: Messiah is tonally and thematically much different from Dune

Similar to the Dune: Messiah novel, Dune 3 won't have to spend as much time building the world and introducing characters to the franchise, which allows for greater exploration of other themes. Many of those who read Dune: Messiah have called it better than the first Dune novel, noting that the tonal flip from being a triumphant hero's journey to an unraveling tragedy makes for some of the best intellectual content of the entire book series. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, Dune: Messiah essentially deals with the aftermath of the resolution of Dune and becomes a very different narrative altogether.

Dune 3 Taking So Long Will Be Better After Dune 2's Rotten Tomatoes Score

Dune 3's narrative time jump would be aligned with a gap between movies

Given the incredible hype surrounding Dune: Part Two, as well as the narrative shift between Dune and Dune: Messiah, it is probably in the best interests of Villeneuve and Warner Bros. to allow some space between the Dune 2 and Dune 3 movies. Before Dune: Part Two was delayed due to the dual WGA and SAG strikes of 2023, it was intended to be released almost exactly two years after the first Dune movie in October 2023. Given that even Villeneuve has expressed some desire to allow the franchise to breathe, Dune: Messiah might not be released until 2026 or 2027, at the earliest.

A prolonged release date for the Dune 3 adaptation would effectively be the best thing for the Dune movie franchise, allowing the impact of Dune: Part Two to resonate for quite some time and give Dune 3 a fair shot at succeeding it. It would be much harder for Dune 3 to follow Dune 2 rapidly even if it is in the best financial interest of Warner Bros. to churn out another film while the iron is hot. Having a much longer gap like Villeneuve seems to have planned will not only be in line with the time jump between books but will also help Dune 3 stand on its own ground and not be compared to Dune: Part Two as directly.

Source: Variety