Timothee Chalamet Just Confirmed the Dune: Part 3 Twist Only Book Fans Saw Coming

Heads up: if you only know Dune from the first two movies, the third one is going to surprise you. Timothee Chalamet just made it pretty clear the next film is sticking close to Frank Herbert's Dune: Messiah, and that includes a serious leap forward in time.

Chalamet told The Graham Norton Show that the story jumps ahead and Paul isn’t the same guy we left on Arrakis. His words:

"There’s supposed to be a nice character shift. I’m playing 15, 20 years older."

In the book, the gap between Dune and Messiah is 12 years. The movie sounds like it’s going even further. That extra stretch does more than add gray hairs — it neatly sidesteps the awkward Alia/Duncan Idaho situation from the novel (Alia is around 14–16 there, and Duncan returns in a very complicated way). A larger time jump also lines up with Anya Taylor-Joy playing Alia on screen.

After Dune: Part Two’s ending, some fans thought Denis Villeneuve might bail on Messiah’s tougher turns. He didn’t use the book’s closing line where Lady Jessica reframes Chani’s role as history would write it; instead, the movie ends with Chani riding a sandworm into the desert. Villeneuve has said that’s not him going off-book; it’s him keeping the intention intact. Or as he put it:

"It’s not that different. At the end of the book, Chani’s heart is broken, and it’s the beginning of the holy war."

So what does that mean for Paul? Herbert wrote Messiah, in part, because too many readers treated Paul like a straightforward savior. Messiah is the course correction: beware the charismatic leader you want to worship. Paul isn’t painted as a cartoon villain, but he’s absolutely not the standard-issue hero. With Chalamet saying he’s playing a man 15–20 years older and different, brace for a real turn — politically, morally, personally. Also, yes, the hair is changing. Chalamet joked about being weirdly attached to it: "It’s kind of like our personalities, these follicles that grow out of our heads."

For the numbers-minded and the calendar watchers:

• Dune (2021): IMDb 8.3, Rotten Tomatoes 83%/90%, $410.6M worldwide
• Dune: Part Two (2024): IMDb 8.5, Rotten Tomatoes 92%/95%, $714.8M worldwide
• Dune 3 is set to hit theaters December 18 (USA)

Villeneuve has been laser-focused so far, and if he’s really committing to Herbert’s vision for the finale, we’re probably in for a bold, maybe divisive, but fitting end to Paul’s story.