Zendaya has revealed that she’s open to a return to the Dune franchise for a potential third film.
READ MORE: ‘Dune’ review: desert-based blockbuster will scorch your senses
Speaking to Fandango along with her Dune: Part Two cast mates to promote the upcoming Denis Villeneuve film, Zendaya revealed that she “would be down” for the director’s planned third entry in the sci-fi franchise.
“Would we be down? I mean of course,” Zendaya said. “Any time Denis calls it’s a yes from me. I’m excited to see what happens. I started Messiah and I was like, ‘Woah, I’m only shooting the first movie. Let me just go back to the first one.’ It’s so much to take in, but there’s no better hands with better care and love for it than Denis.”
Zendaya added: “I’m just excited to see … It’s just anticipation. Whenever he is ready. He’s a perfectionist in many ways and doesn’t want to share things until they’re ready. So I’m respecting that and waiting until he’s ready.”
Zendaya’s comments come after Denis Villeneuve teased in August 2023 that he had plans for adapting Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune: Messiah as the third entry in his Dune film franchise.
Villeneuve said at the time: “I will say, there are words on paper.” Dune Messiah was the direct sequel to the first Dune book. “Dune Messiah was written in reaction to the fact that people perceived Paul Atreides as a hero,” Villeneuve said, explaining that it wasn’t Herbert’s intention, “Which is not what he wanted to do. My adaptation [of Dune] is closer to his idea that it’s actually a warning.”
In December, the filmmaker shared an update, stating that a script for the third film was “being written right now. The screenplay is almost finished but it is not finished. It will take a little time… There’s a dream of making a third movie… it would make absolute sense to me.”
Zendaya in ‘Dune’ (2021). Credt: Warner Bros/Chiabella James.
However, he added that he would likely “make a detour before just to go away from the sun. For my mental sanity I might do something in between, but my dream would be to go a last time on this planet that I love.”
Denis Villeneuve’s revamped version of the franchise is set to continue with Dune: Part Two, starring Timothèe Chalamet and Zendaya, when it arrives in cinemas on March 15.
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