Fan-Favorite Dune Star Returning For Next Movie (and It’s a Big Change From the Book)

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune series is shaping up to be one of the definitive sci-fi film franchises of its time. The two installments released to date have earned widespread critical praise (including Best Picture nominations) and performed very well at the box office. Viewers are eager to see what Villeneuve does with his third Dune movie, which will draw from the novel Dune: Messiah. While the previous films do an excellent job of bringing Frank Herbert’s classic story to the big screen in a way few fans could have envisioned, Villeneuve made some changes to the source material to better fit his films. That’s happening again with his take on Messiah, though it’s an alteration most people will be onboard with.

Speaking with IndieWire, Rebecca Ferguson, who was a standout as Lady Jessica in the first two Dune movies, confirmed she is returning for the third entry. “I don’t have a big part in this one, [she’s] just barely in the book,” Ferguson said. “I’m not sure I was supposed to be in it and Denis had a little idea. The script is phenomenal. It’s really hard to create a film, it’s such a dense book. There’s so much to tell. [Denis] does dip in and out and he does try and he does want to have certain connections and tentacles to the book. Whatever Denis touches I think is phenomenal.”

Dune: Part Three Will Make Key Changes to Dune: Messiah

Ferguson’s return in Dune 3 is fascinating because Lady Jessica does not have a role in the Dune: Messiah novel. The book mentions that the character has traveled to the planet Caladan (home of the Atreides’ ancestors), which serves as the explanation for her absence from the story’s events. Lady Jessica doesn’t return to Arrakis until Children of Dune. Ferguson couldn’t share too many details about the size of her role, but her inclusion marks a notable deviation from the Dune 3 source material since Lady Jessica will physically be seen on screen. Whether she just appears in a vision or factors into the narrative in some way remains to be seen.

Children of Dune could provide some clues for how Lady Jessica fits into Dune 3. In that book, she comes back to Arrakis to examine Paul Atreides’ twin children, Leto II and Ghanima. Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke have been cast to portray those two characters in Dune: Part Three, so perhaps the film will depict this plot beat from the novels. The casting of Momoa and Brooke as Paul’s children implies Dune 3 could skip over the extensive 12-year time jump between the events of Dune and Messiah and incorporate a few elements from Children of Dune. It will be interesting to see how Villeneuve crafts this story.

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When Dune 3 began production over the summer, the movie was called “the next film in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy.” That classification contradicts what Villeneuve had previously said about the project, but it’s possible things have changed over the course of the film’s development. If Villeneuve’s next film is the third installment of a trilogy, the implication is it will serve as the concluding chapter of a particular story, perhaps definitively closing the book on the franchise. There are plenty of other Dune books that could be adapted by other filmmakers, but theoretically, everyone involved might have felt it’s better to end things on a high note with Villeneuve’s final installment. Interestingly, the official title is reportedly Dune: Part Three, not Dune: Messiah, signaling that the film could be an amalgamation of works and not just an adaptation of one specific novel.

Like any on-screen adaptation, Villeneuve’s Dune films need to change things for the medium. His tweaks for Dune 3 should go beyond Lady Jessica. Fans are excited to see Jason Momoa return to the Dune franchise, but his character has a rather unsavory storyline in the books that would come across as inappropriate in the movie. The onus will be on Villeneuve to find a way to honor the original source material while putting his own spin on things, updating the story for today’s audiences. He’s proven he’s the best fit for the Dune series so far, so he’s more than earned the trust of moviegoers.

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