Director Denis Villeneuve will reportedly begin shooting Dune 3 a year earlier than expected, putting the highly-anticipated trilogy-capper on a faster track to theaters than was originally guessed. The huge success of Dune: Part Two made it easier for Villeneuve to sell Warner Bros. on making a third film, as the director seeks to complete the story of Paul Atreides with an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah, the second book in the author’s legendary sci-fi series.

Filming on the sure-to-be-epic Dune: Part Three was expected to begin in summer 2026, but according to a new report from Deadline’s Baz Bamigboye, Villeneuve is now planning to roll cameras on the sequel in June 2025. Nothing has been confirmed at this time, but it was previously reported that Villeneuve’s next film had been slated for release on December 18, 2026, and speculation was that this next film would be Dune 3, and not one of the three other projects the director is attached to.