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‘Dune: Part Two’ gets delayed, going head-to-head with ‘Hunger Games’ prequel

Next November it's sandworms vs. songbirds

Image via Legendary Entertainment

If you’ve been champing at the bit waiting for the second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the Sci-Fi epic Dune you’re sadly in for a little bit longer of a wait. Warner Bros. has pushed back the film’s release date from October 20, 2023 to November 17, 2023.

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While the pushback will land the much-anticipated final part of Villeneuve’s vision in the sweet spot of pre-Thanksgiving movie opening, the film is now set to encounter fierce competition from another film franchise. The similarly long-awaited Hunger Games prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is currently scheduled to open on the same date. Songbirds and Snakes may be facing the stiffer competition; the first part of Dune was Warner’s highest-grossing title of 2021.

Dune: Part Two begins production in Budapest this fall. Part one stars Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin are all expected to return to play their former roles. Joining the former cast are new additions Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan Corrino, Léa Seydoux as Lady Margot Fenring, and Christopher Walken as the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.

The film will complete the adaptation of the acclaimed science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert, long regarded as one of the genre’s greatest works. Picking up where the first film left off it will show Chalamet’s Paul in his rise to power, first over the desert-dwelling Fremen and later the galaxy as he comes to terms with the prescient powers that are his birthright.