Just days after the first installment of Dune hit theaters and a successful box office opening weekend, Dune: Part Two has been officially greenlit. Releasing simultaneously in theaters and on streaming service HBO Max, Dune earned Warner Bros.’s largest opening weekend box office of 2021 with $40M in the United States. This resulted in the swift announcement that Dune: Part Two’s release date is set for October 20, 2023, nearly two years to the day after its predecessor.

The announcement of Dune: Part Two should come as no surprise, with director/writer Denis Villeneuve saying that the studio was “100 percent behind the project." In fact, Villeneuve seems to be busy at work already, having started writing Dune: Part Two months ago, before it was even greenlit.

Villeneuve said on writing the sequel:

“I’m writing [Part Two] now, and I feel like I’m eight years old again. That’s very uncommon for me. It’s the first time I’ve experienced it where I’m watching one of my movies, and I have a moment of deep gratitude, of deep joy, and I say, 'Thank you, life, for having allowed me to bring that to the screen.' [laughs] I don’t know how other people will feel about it. But me? Denis Villeneuve when he was 14 years old? Thank you."

Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atriedes and Zendaya as Chani standing side by side in Dune
Image via Warner Bros.

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The first installment of the Dune series follows Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides but Dune: Part Two promises to shift the spotlight to Zendaya's Chani. Dune marks the second feature-film adaptation of the Frank Herbert classic novel of the same name.

The tumultuous effects of COVID-19 on the film industry, Warner Bros.'s co-release strategy on HBO Max, and changing audience viewing habits had cast a questionable light on the financial prospects of Dune. While some may have doubted the film's financial potential, Villeneuve was certainly not held back by the questionable future of his franchise.

2023 is still a way off but placeholder dates give some idea of what the landscape of film releases will be. Within the month of October 2023, Sony and Marvel have recently announced an untitled film coming on October 6th, while a new Exorcist film is on the way from Universal Pictures. While Dune: Part Two is still two years away, it will be interesting to see if any of these release dates change after this recent announcement.

Dune: Part 2 will release exclusively to theaters on October 20, 2023.

KEEP READING: 'Dune' Sequel Will Switch Leads to Zendaya's Chani, Assuming We Get One