The biggest movie star vehicle since before the dawn of the streaming era, Dune: Part Two has landed in theaters, to raucous applause and massive wormy popcorn buckets. Starring the present and future of Hollywood, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, and apparently Anya Taylor-Joy, the film picks up where Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 triumph, left off.
The Dune-iverse began in 1965 with Frank Herbert’s famous novel, which introduces a fictional universe in the distant future wherein a young man travels to a dangerous desert planet to save his people–you know, standard sci-fi shit.
Dune is the stuff of Hollywood legend, having long been considered “unfilmable” due to its breadth. As Wired put it, Dune “has four appendices and a glossary of its own gibberish, and its action takes place on two planets, one of which is a desert overrun by worms the size of airport runways. Lots of important people die or try to kill each other, and they’re all tethered to about eight entangled subplots.” The story was considered for the screen many times before director David Lynch took it to task in 1984 with Kyle MacLachlan as the lead. The reviews, in short, weren’t great.
Nearly 40 years later, Denis Villenueve helmed the Dune of today with a budget of $165 million. The film won six Academy Awards in its year and brought millions of new fans to the nerd-core sci-fi series, all of whom were sat in feral anticipation for the sequel—bigger, better, and more expensive at $190 million.
Dune: Part Two follows Chalamet’s Paul Atreides into the desert planet of Arrakis, where he joins forces with the Fremen people to fight against the villainous House Harkonnen. The new film introduces two new stars to the Dune-iverse in Austin Butler and Florence Pugh, as well as Christopher Walken and Léa Seydoux. Butler plays villain Feyd-Rautha, a murderous little freak promoted to the role of Ruler by his fat floating uncle, Stellan Skarsgård’s Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Pugh, on the other hand, enters the chat as Princess Irulan who—you know what? Just watch the damn movie.
How Can I Watch Dune?
Now, to the sauce. As of now, Dune: Part Two is playing exclusively in theaters, which is in our best interest. When the cinema gods give us a nearly $200 million movie, it’s best consumed on the largest screen available. That said, the film’s precursor, Dune, is available to stream on HBO Max. Whether or not you’ve seen it already, we suggest revisiting before diving into Part Two.
When Will Dune: Part Two Be Available To Stream?
Don’t hold your breath, it will be a while until this film is streamable. When that day does come, it will be streaming on HBO Max. Dune: Part Two, a Warner Brothers picture, falls under the purview of Max. The film will join the ranks of other Warner Brothers blockbusters including Barbie and Wonka.
