As Hollywood’s actors and writers continue to strike, one of the year’s biggest blockbusters is potentially eyeing a delayed release date. Dune: Part Two, director Denis Villeneuve’s highly anticipated follow-up to 2021’s Dune, may be pushed back to 2024, sources tell Variety. The film is currently slated for a November 3 debut.
Warner Bros. Film Group is considering a move, three individuals with knowledge of discussions told the outlet. One insider said that no shift in the theatrical date is currently planned, strikes notwithstanding. Others noted that both Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment would have to agree on a new date and that Legendary has yet to be approached by Warner about a change. Vanity Fair has reached out to Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment for comment.
Per SAG-AFTRA guidelines, actors on strike are prohibited from promotion of their upcoming projects. Given the starry nature of the epic sequel, a press tour without Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, or new costars like Austin Butler and Florence Pugh doesn’t bode well for box office hype. In addition to returning cast members Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, and Stellan Skarsgård, Dune: Part Two also welcomes new characters played by Léa Seydoux and Christopher Walken.
Pugh was thrilled to work on the film with peers like Chalamet, Zendaya, and Butler, she told VF earlier this year: “They’re stars in their own ways, not in the cliché way of using the word. They’re just—they’re sparkly people. I’m now lucky enough to call them all my friends, which is super exciting. For me to be able to work with the ‘young Hollywood’ of the moment, and them being beautiful people, and then have them on my phone when I want to text them—to see that that’s the direction in which our industry is going is such a wonderful feeling.”
If one is getting a bit of déjà vu, that’s because just three months before its original release date, Dune itself was delayed a year amid mass theater closures in 2020. Other films that are reportedly considering moves from their current slots are The Color Purple and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which are currently slated for December 20 and December 25, respectively.
Should Dune: Part Two get pushed back, it’ll be worth the wait. As Villeneuve told Vanity Fair in its exclusive first look of the film, “Boy, it has been the most very fulfilling experience so far, and very profound for me.”