Dune 2 with Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet promises to be even more epic than the first installment

A Dune 2 with Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet even more epic than the first?

Now Warner’s darling, Denis Villeneuve will release the second part of the film, Dune, Part Two (Dune: Part Two in VO) not on November 1, 2023, as originally planned, but on February 28, 2024, due to the Hollywood strike. And it promises to be just as big as the first installment, if not bigger.

The director teased this second part to millions of viewers in the final seconds of the film with Zendaya’s already cult line: “This is only the beginning“. The pitch? You can follow “the mythical journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while plotting revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Having to choose between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he strives to prevent a terrible future that only he can predict.”

Austin Butler as the villain in Dune Part II

In this second part of Dune will begin where the previous installment left off, with no time jump, we’ll see Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya as headliner, but also Austin Butler (the hero of Elvis, bald in this film), Léa Seydoux, Javier Bardem, Florence PughDave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Christopher Walken, Souheila Yacoub and Josh Brolin. At this year’s Cinema Con convention in Las Vegas, Denis Villeneuve announced that the film would feature more action scenes.

The latter describes it as“an epic, action-packed war film.” First images were shown at the event, and they reveal Timothée Chalamet riding a sand worm, which places him in a leadership role. In an interview with the American media Vanity Fair, Denis Villeneuve also explained: “I wanted to make a very human film, very close to the characters, despite the scale of the story. I kept telling my team: ‘The most important thing is this spark, this relationship between these two characters’. If we don’t capture that, if we don’t see it on screen, there’s no film. The epicenter of the story is this relationship. […] There’s something about this young man that makes Chani’s heart skip a beat.”

In 2021, Dune directed by Denis Villeneuve, grossed around $400 million at the box office. Delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the blockbuster took Europe and the USA by storm, surpassing all estimates. Adapted from Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction novel of the same name, the first part of the series featured a stellar cast including Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac… and an enormous budget of $165 million. Its history? In a vast empire stretching across a multitude of planets, a despotic and jealous emperor orchestrates a fratricidal war, with the Chosen One taking refuge in a giant desert among an indigenous people, while waiting to regain power. Already brought to life in pictures by David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky, the novelistic saga was notoriously difficult to adapt. But thanks to sumptuous staging, magnificent special effects and costumes, and breathtakingly contemplative sequences, Denis Villeneuve has found his audience.

The first minutes of Dune 2 with Florence Pugh revealed

The first ten minutes of the feature film Dune 2 were shown at the CCXP film and video game convention in São Paulo a few days ago. You can see Florence Pugh, who plays Princess Irulan, refers to events in the first part of Dune concerning the battle of Arrakis, which has now ended. But not all the Atreides are dead.

We also see Paul ( Timothée Chalamet) snuggling up to Chani (Zendaya), a Fremen discovered at the end of Dune, as they try to escape from Harkonnen. Chani saves Paul (from a warrior’s attack) and their chemistry augurs a beautiful love story. Journalists who attended the screening of these first minutes speak of photography and sets as sublime and spectacular as in the first part of Dune.

Dune, Part II (2023), by Denis Villeneuve, in cinemas February 28, 2024.