With Denis Villeneuve set to depart the Dune franchise after directing the third movie, Messiah, Warner Bros. has reportedly found his replacement.
Trusted scooper Daniel Richtman is reporting that Warner Bros. and Legendary are eyeing Gareth Edwards to succeed Villeneuve as the Dune franchise director. Although nothing has been officially announced or confirmed yet, Dune 4 is expected to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune: Messiah follow-up novel, Children of Dune, which was first published in 1976.
Gareth Edwards is no stranger to the sci-fi genre
Unlike Villeneuve, who has dabbled in other genres, Edwards’ filmography is firmly rooted in sci-fi. He first gained recognition for his debut directorial effort, 2010’s Monsters, an independent sci-fi horror movie starring Scoot McNairy. He then directed the first installment in the MonsterVerse, Godzilla (2014). With the MonsterVerse also produced by Legendary, Edwards and the company already have a working relationship with one another.
Edwards then directed the movie that he is perhaps most well-known for, 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first spinoff of the franchise released by Disney following its acquisition of Lucasfilm. Since Star Wars, Edwards has directed the original sci-fi movie The Creator (2023) and is in post-production on Jurassic World Rebirth, the next installment in the long-running Universal franchise which is slated to hit theaters this July.
Villeneuve’s Dune franchise, which currently consists of just his two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s original novel, has been widely praised as well as commercially successful, with the movies collectively grossing over $1.1 billion worldwide. The filmmaker is now busy working on the screenplay for the third installment, which will adapt Herbert’s novel Dune: Messiah. While no production start date has been set, there have been reports that the movie will begin filming before the end of 2025, with Messiah expected to be the “untitled Denis Villeneuve event film” that Warner Bros. has dated for release on Dec. 18, 2026.
Dune and Dune: Part Two are currently available to stream on Max.
(Source: Daniel Richtman via X)
