Dune: Part Two Officially Greenlit

It’s official: Dune: Part Two has been given the green light.

According to production company Legendary’s official Twitter, the company said Tuesday that they are “excited to continue the journey” as ticket sales continue to pour in for the first installment. Take a look at the tweet below:

The announcement no doubt comes as a relief for fans of the first film currently in theaters, whose sequel prospects was never a guarantee if the movie flopped, despite only being part one of a two-part story.

And with director Denis Villeneuve’s style taking on a decidedly epic — yet arthouse — track record in his filmography so far, it certainly didn’t seem like a shoe-in that the movie would be an audience-pandering action romp certain to rake in the bucks. This is evidenced by Villeneuve’s previous critically acclaimed sci-fi film Blade Runner 2049, which garnered two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects, but was considered a box-office disappointment.

Villeneuve apparently did not compromise on his sophisticated filmmaking with Dune, with it garnering a commendable certified-fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 84%.

So far, it has surprisingly done much better in the box office than Blade Runner 2049, garnering a whopping $220 million globally and raking in a surprisingly robust $40 million in domestic opening weekend box office numbers.

In addition, the movie has already gained higher viewership on HBO Max than Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which itself was considered a global smash hit.

You can watch Dune right now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.