Timothée Chalamet Reveals Dune: Part Three’s Time Shift

Actor Timothée Chalamet has confirmed that Dune: Part Three will take place years after the second movie

Warner Bros. Pictures Dune: Part Three concluded production back in November and is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 18, 2026. The film, adapted from Frank Herbert’s novel Dune Messiah, is the third and final installment for director Denis Villeneuve. The movie will feature a story taking place after the events of Dune: Part Two, exploring the consequences of Paul Atreides’ rise to power and the holy war that follows.

Dune star Timothée Chalamet was out and about promoting his latest film, Marty Supreme, and sat down with Graham Norton on “The Graham Norton Show” via YouTube and commented on how his character, Paul Atreides, has changed by the time the new film begins. The actor confirmed that it would commit to the novel’s time jump between the original book and Messiah, which is why his character is sporting a new look.

“It was for a film, for ‘Dune: Part Three,’ and there’s supposed to be a nice character shift. And I’m playing 15, 20 years older,”

Over the summer, fans of the once curly-haired actor were shocked to see him out and about with what appeared to be a buzz cut. It turns out he was just as surprised as everyone else. The Oscar nominee said that his hair transformation, done on June 25, was Villeneuve’s idea and that he kept asking the star to go shorter and shorter with his hair. But Chalamet fought back and didn’t want his hair cut any shorter. He felt that a person’s hair acts as a powerful, nonverbal extension of one’s identity.

“so we did a 3 millimeter haircut, I think it’s called,” “Then the director wanted more, 1.5. Then we did 1, and I begged him,” Chalamet admitted. “I said, ‘Please, please, like … Your hair, weirdly, we’re all attached; it’s kind of like our personality.”

The story of Herbert’s Dune: Messiah is an interesting one because Paul, now the Emperor Muad’Dib, is a tragic figure trapped by his own prophecies and the immense responsibility of his absolute power. He rules an empire but struggles with the devastating jihad that has killed billions, feeling powerless to stop the darker future he foresaw. Messiah paints a masterfully vivid picture of a human messiah. Broken, full of regret, who hopefully did a few things right. Finding out, on screen, how he will deal with all this change will be a significant part to its finale.

Villeneuve has commented that this is his final Dune film and is “deliberately shifting away from a traditional trilogy structure” to adapt Dune: Part 3 (Messiah). We don’t know at this time whether the director has incorporated elements from the third book, Children of Dune, in order to provide a more complete ending. Although actress Rebecca Ferguson, best known for portraying Lady Jessica, recently shared these insights via IndieWire that the film will include new material not found anywhere in Herbert’s sequel novel and that the director has taken a little more liberty with her character than what was originally written.

“I don’t have a big part in this one, [she’s] just barely in the book. I’m not sure I was supposed to be in it and Denis had a little idea,” Ferguson said. She added that the filmmaker “does dip in and out and he does try and he does want to have certain connections and tentacles to the book.”

Ferguson praised the screenplay, calling it “phenomenal” and noting that there are challenges in adapting such a “dense book.” The characters’ inner thoughts and complex political intrigue, is difficult to translate to screen in a visually compelling way without relying on excessive narration or dialogue.

While Villeneuve is attempting to be faithful to the source material’s spirit, he’s expected to make necessary changes in order to create a captivating cinematic experience, possibly adding action or combining elements to make the story work on screen. The Dune miniseries from the early 2000s, specifically Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune (which included Dune Messiah), handled the internal monologues, suggesting that a successful adaptation is possible with the right creative choices.

“Dune: Part 3” will also star Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Robert Pattinson, Ida Brooke, Jason Momoa, Anya Taylor-Joy, and more. Villeneuve co-wrote the screenplay with Jon Spaihts.

Watch Chalamet’s remarks on his hair above. 

New episodes of “The Graham Norton Show” air Fridays on BBC One.

_{“I will tell you a thing about your new name,” Stilgar said. “The choice pleases us. Muad’Dib is wise in the ways of the desert. Muad’Dib creates his own water. Muad’Dib hides from the sun and travels in the cool night. Muad’Dib is fruitful and multiplies over the land. Muad’Dib we call ‘instructor-of-boys.’ That is a powerful base on which to build your life, Paul-Muad’Dib, who is Usul among us. We welcome you.” StilgarFrank}

Herbert, Dune (Dune, #1)