The sequel will pick up right after the current film, focusing on the continued struggles of Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), as they join forces with the Fremen, a nomadic society led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and Channi (Zendaya) on the desert planet Arrakis. This is only the beginning," Villeneuve said after the announcement. "It was a dream of mine to adapt Frank Herbert's Dune, and I have the fans, the cast and crew, Legendary and Warner Bros. But with the announcement, Villeneuve will get to continue his work on the Dune franchise. The film's director said it would depend on the final success of the film at the box office and on streaming. In the lead-up to Part One's North American release, there'd been some speculation about the fate of a sequel to Dune. highest opening for a film in theaters in 2021. Though this caused concern among industry analysts and fans about finding success for the recent film, Dune's opening weekend in North America brought in more than $40 million (on top of the over $180 million haul from international markets), which was Warner Bros.
shifted plans and touted the film as one of the key assets in its unorthodox strategy of offering a day-and-date release of tentpole films in theaters and on the HBO Max streaming service. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, Warner Bros. Originally, Dune: Part One was supposed to come out in the Fall of 2020.