Following the release of Dune: Part Two earlier this year, director Denis Villeneuve suggested that he might take an extended break from the franchise before returning for a third film based on Dune: Messiah. However, Villeneuve has changed his mind and he’s now looking to get back to the story on Arrakis as soon as possible.
“Let’s say that I thought that after Part Two that I will take a break, that I will go back in the woods and stay in the woods for a while to recover,” Villeneuve told Deadline. “But the woods weren’t really suiting me, and I would go back behind the camera faster than I think. But that’s all I can say.”
Earlier this year, Villeneuve lined up the rights to adapt Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s nonfiction book Nuclear War: A Scenario. The director has also hinted at other projects he had in the works besides Dune. If Dune: Messiah is starting sooner than expected, then the status of those films is currently unknown.