Revealing that Dune 3 is unlike a trilogy, director Denis Villeneuve stated in a recent interview that he would leave the franchise after the third instalment in it.

“It’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych. It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity,” Villeneuve told Vanity Fair.

The third film in the Dune franchise is set twelve years following the first book in the Dune series, so the feature adaptation should age up the cast, which includes Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet.

“That’s my problem. I know how to do that,” said Villeneuve.

He also wants the Dune franchise to continue with another director at the helm.

"Listen, if Dune: Messiah happens, it will have been many years for me on Arrakis, and I would love to do something else. I think that it would be a good idea for me to make sure that, in Messiah, there are the seeds in the project if someone wants to do something else afterwards, because they are beautiful books. They are more difficult to adapt. They become more and more esoteric. It’s a bit more tricky to adapt, but I’m not closing the door. I will not do it myself, but it could happen with someone else."