Frank Herbert’sDuneis one of the most successful and forward-thinking science-fiction novels of the 20th century. It has an incredible reputation, and it has gone on to influence many of the most famous and popular science-fiction stories in the decades that have followed. Most notably, George Lucas would take direct inspiration fromDunewhen directing his 1977 sci-fi fantasy film,Star Wars. Given the popularity of the novel, it’s understandable why there have been so many attempts to bring it to screen over the years.
After Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempted film adaptation failed to get off the ground in the mid-70s, David Lynch’sDunefrom 1984 became the first movie to bring Herbert’s story to the big screen. Since then, there have been several other attempts at adaptingDune, includingtwo sequential miniserieson the SYFY Channel in the early 2000s.
However, at this point, it has become clear that the most successful and definitive adaptation ofDuneis the current iteration from director Denis Villeneuve. The firstDunemovie from Villeneuve hit theaters in 2021, and, despite only adapting the first half of the first book, it was immediately praised for its incredible narrative and attention to detail. The second film,Dune: Part Two, is set for release in March, with a spin-off Max series,Dune: Prophecy, set for release sometime next year as well.
Villeneuve has also already expressed interest in adapting the second novel,Dune: Messiah, into a third film to close out his trilogy. With all this newDunematerial, it’s clear that Warner Bros. views the series as a franchise with a lot of potential. However, the chances ofDunebreaking out as the next major franchise are slim, which is probably a good thing. Here’s why:
The Depth of Dune’s Lore
First, it needs to be established why it is so easy to seeDuneas a series that could be endlessly pumped for new “content.” Well, that’s because theDuneuniverse, throughout its numerous novels, has grown to be quite extensive and substantial. Like theStar Warsfranchise it inspired,Dunehas expanded outward to cover many different corners of its universe at various points in time, spanning thousands of years.
Herbert wrote sixDunebooks between 1965 and 1985; however, his son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have picked up the torch and continued expanding theDuneseries in recent decades. Since 1999, the two have publishednearly 20 newDunenovelsalongside numerous additional short stories. Most recently wasPrincess of Dune, released in October 2023, which explores the two key characters of Princess Irulan and the Fremen Chani.
Throughout the many subsequent novels following the firstDunebook, the series has become infamous for how strange it gets. Generally speaking, the further into the story ofDunethat you get, the stranger and more abstract it becomes. This puts a cap on the amount of material that can be successfully adapted from theDuneseries, as there is only so far that casual fans will be willing to go with the absurdity of the series.
While the story of the firstDunebook may seem pretty straightforward, the franchise eventually reaches a point in which it is almost unrecognizable from where it all began. These countless oddities are collectively one of the biggest selling points for many of the most die-hardDunefans, but they are way too strange and disconcerting to be appealing to general audiences on a massive scale.
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How Other Franchises Have Fared
Even if casual audiences were willing to go along with all the strangeness of the deeperDunelore, is a grand on-screen expansion of the series really what would be best? We don’t think so. That’s largely because of the ways that many of the current major franchises have progressed as their universes have expanded. The closest comparisons to what an extensiveDunefranchise would likely look like aretheStar WarsandLord of the Ringsfranchises.
WhileLord of the Ringsis currently gearing up for a massive on-screen expansion, with numerous new films and shows, it has already become clear that some fans of the Tolkien novels can be incredibly toxic and unrelenting in their hatred of anything that isn’t word-for-word from the books. Plus, the new material that has been produced, such as the threeHobbitfilms and the first season ofThe Rings of Power, doesn’t quite live up to the quality of J.R.R. Tolkien’s original texts nor the Peter Jackson films from the early 2000s. Yes, they’ve made money along the way, but it’s questionable if these new adaptations are really what’s best for the long-term reputation and legacy of the series.
As forStar Wars, that series used to be primarily contained within the six films of the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy. Yes, there were many different books and comics that expanded theStar Warsuniverse, but those were only ever supplementary and never really bled over into the mainline series. However, after Disney purchased Lucasfilm in the early 2010s, we saw theStar Warsseries explode with many new films, animated series, live-action shows, and much more.
While, for die-hardStar Warsfans, this has largely proven to be a good thing, it has also lost the franchise some of the specialness that it previously held.Star Warsno longer exists on the pedestal that it used to, nor is the release of a newStar Warsstory that big of a deal anymore, since it happens multiple times a year.
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Leave a Good Thing Alone
BothStar WarsandThe Lord of the Ringshave been somewhat watered down by their expansion into massive on-screen connected universe adaptations. While the original stories will always exist and maintain the same qualities that made them so beloved to begin with, the franchises as a whole don’t quite hold up those same standards.
It would be a shame to see the same thing happen withDune. We love Villeneuve’s firstDunefilm, are incredibly excited to see him complete that story withDune: Part Two, and remain optimistic that he could deliveran outstanding adaptation ofMessiah; but, we just hope that the quality of the overall on-screenDuneseries doesn’t get diminished by an excess of other stories.
With theDune: Prophecyseries hitting Max next year, it appears that Warner Bros. is testing the waters to see if audiences are interested in that kind of expansion with theDuneseries. While, obviously, we would love to see another greatDunestory on-screen, we just hope thatProphecyis able to uphold the same immense quality as Villeneuve’s films and Herbert’s novels. It’s also important to recognize that, just because something is great, that doesn’t mean that it needs to be endlessly expanded in different ways. It’s okay to just let a good thing be a good thing.
