‘Dune: Part Two’ Release Date Pushed to 2024
Fans will have to wait an extra four and a half months to see Dune: Part 2 because the AMPTP won’t come to the table.
The AMPTP‘s unwillingness to negotiate with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA has led to studios (run by AMPTP members) moving, shelving, and canceling projects. This is happening because the AMPTP isn’t willing to pay fair wages and protect artistic integrity. They’d rather hit themselves repeatedly while telling people it’s the unions doing it. Hint: it’s not the unions.
When the WGA strike started in May, writers’ rooms stopped working on projects. SAG-AFTRA voted to go on strike in July, which shut down most productions and promotional tours. With two major unions on strike, the studios started updating slates and moving dates of projects–including several that are complete.
Disney’s slate pushed some projects back by three years. Sony made sweeping changes to their release schedule last month – moving Kraven the Hunter nearly a year and removing Beyond The Spider-Verse entirely. Amazon has canceled shows that were renewed for second seasons. There’s a full list here, which includes award shows, talk shows, movies, and scripted series.
Union members want to get back to work. They want to talk about the projects they’re a part of and want audiences to see their work.
Dune: Part Two New Date
Legendary and Warner Bros. are the next studios to move dates. They’ve moved Dune Part 2 from November 3rd to next year – March 15, 2024, to be exact. That date used to belong to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which has been moved to April 12, 2024.
This isn’t because the movie needs time to undergo edits or reshoots. It’s because SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines don’t allow actors to promote projects made with AMPTP members. The studio heads understand the importance of actors participating in movie promotion but won’t pay them a fair wage.
This wouldn’t be happening if the producers and studio execs sat down with the unions and had deals completed in time for the big fall releases. But they didn’t.
Dune: Part Two Cast & Details
At the end of the first movie, House Harkonnen regains its control over Arrakis. They aim to keep their power using a heavy arsenal and the backing of the Emperor. But there is a power rising against them, led by a boy they thought they’d killed. The story and setting are about to get much bigger.
Dune: Part Two covers the second half of the classic sci-fi novel, starting with Paul and Jessica’s trek to the Fremen sietch. This half will bring more interplanetary politics, Paul’s rise as a leader, and the fight for Arrakis’ freedom that becomes Muad’Dib’s Jihad.
The cast that made it out of Part One alive is returning–Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem. Some of the actors joining them are Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam Corrino I, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan Corrino, Austin Butler as Feyd Rautha, and Léa Seydoux as Lady Margot Fenring.
Dune: Part Two opens on March 15th, 2024.
