Denis Villeneuve said he will not be releasing any deleted scenes, explaining, 'I'm a firm believer that if it's not in the film, it's dead. I kill darlings, and it's painful for me. Sometimes I remove shots and think, "I can't believe I'm cutting this." It feels like a samurai opening my own gut. It's painful, so I can't go back and stitch together a Frankenstein to try to reanimate things I've killed. It's too painful. When it's dead, it's dead — and it's dead for a reason. Yes, it's a painful task, but it's my job. The film prevails. I'm, I think, quite severe in the editing room. I'm not thinking about my ego; I'm thinking about the film.'
Stellan Skarsgård's prosthetic make-up took eight hours to put on and two hours to remove each day of filming. He refrained from drinking and took Imodium tablets to avoid having to use the toilet during filming.
Austin Butler said he dialled back his method acting for portraying Feyd‑Rautha, "In the past — with Elvis (2022) for example — I immersed myself in that world for three years and it was the only thing I thought about day and night. With Feyd I knew that would be unhealthy for my family and friends... so I made a conscious choice to set a boundary. That boundary gave me more freedom between action and cut because I knew I would protect everyone outside of the context of what we were doing. I'm not saying it doesn't bleed into your life, but I was determined not to do anything dangerous beyond that line, and in a way that allowed me to go deeper." Denis Villeneuve said, "On camera he seemed almost possessed; off camera he remained perhaps 25–30% Feyd — enough to stay present and focused, but distant enough that he didn't put anyone at risk on set."
Christopher Walken, who portrays Emperor Shaddam IV, by chance also appeared in the 2001 music video for the Fatboy Slim track "Weapon of Choice", whose lyrics include several nods to Dune ("Don't be shocked by the tone of my voice", "Walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm"). Walken said he was unaware of the connection until a GQ interviewer pointed it out.
In the novels, the language frequently spoken by the Fremen is called Chakobsa; it is primarily rooted in real-world Arabic but also incorporates elements of French, Greek, Romani and Slavic languages, with significant alterations drawn from Hebrew and Sanskrit.
Feyd-Rautha's duel on Giedi Prime is depicted in a black-and-white infrared colour palette, apparently caused by a black sun that the planet orbits. This is the first occasion Giedi's sun has been shown in a Dune adaptation. However, the book's description of a "planet of the black sun" is likely metaphorical, since all stars emit light and a world that received no starlight would be unable to sustain life.
The markings on Lady Jessica's face depict the Bene Gesserit litany against fear.
Anya Taylor-Joy appears in a brief uncredited cameo as Alia, Paul Atreides' younger sister, in a flash-forward sequence within one of his visions. Alia is a beloved character from the original Dune novel: she is born during Paul and Jessica's two-year stay among the Fremen and, despite being a toddler, possesses an adult mind because Jessica consumed the Water of Life. However, Denis Villeneuve reduced that two-year timeframe in the film to only several months, so Alia is largely represented as a voice calling to Jessica from within her womb and remains unborn by the film's end. Also entirely omitted is Paul and Chani's infant son Leto (named for Paul's late father), who in the book was born during that two-year period but was killed in the final battle of Arrakeen when the Sardaukar attacked the Fremen sietch where he had been concealed.
Unlike the common practice, Dune: Part One (2021) and its follow-up were not shot back-to-back, and the studio's backing for the sequel largely depended on the first film's success — a situation made more complicated by a fixed release schedule and the COVID‑19 pandemic. Nevertheless, director Denis Villeneuve said that production company Legendary Pictures adored the first instalment and was "ready to go to war to make the second one", so the prospect of a sequel was very likely. It was formally given the go‑ahead on 26 October 2021, four days after Dune: Part One (2021)'s United States release.
Austin Butler ad-libbed a scene in which Feyd-Rautha kisses Baron Harkonnen.
Denis Villeneuve characterised Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler) as "a cross between a psychopathic killer, an Olympic sword master, a snake and Mick Jagger." Jagger had, in fact, been lined up to play the part in Alejandro Jodorowsky's unsuccessful Dune adaptation in the 1970s.
Austin Butler undertook vocal coaching to more closely emulate the voice of Stellan Skarsgård.
Austin Butler was required to put on 25 pounds of muscle to portray Feyd-Rautha in the film.
Greig Fraser, the cinematographer on both Dyuna (2021) and this film, recommended filming the sequence set on Giedi Prime (the Harkonnen homeworld) with infrared cameras to impart a translucent quality to the skin.
Bill Skarsgård (the son of Stellan Skarsgård) and Barry Keoghan were both shortlisted for the part of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen before Austin Butler was ultimately cast.
Director Denis Villeneuve pays tribute to David Lynch, the director of Dyuna (1984). At the beginning of Lynch's Mavi məxmər (1986), Kyle MacLachlan discovers a severed human ear teeming with ants. Towards the end of Villeneuve's film, when the frame lingers on the corpse of Stellan Skarsgård, the camera closes in on his ear, which is likewise crawling with ants.
Austin Butler was offered the part while having coffee with Denis Villeneuve, with no audition required. He spent four months training in Budapest, following a fitness programme devised by a former Navy SEAL.
After drinking — and surviving — the Water of Life, both Jessica and Paul Atreides discover that they are, respectively, the daughter and grandson of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. The film does not explain how this came to be, but in the Dune prequel novels it is disclosed that Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (portrayed in the film by Charlotte Rampling) is their mother and grandmother. As part of the Bene Gesserit plan to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, she once demanded a child from the Baron, a request the Baron satisfied by subjecting her to a brutal sexual assault. In retaliation, the Reverend Mother inflicted on him a disease that left him deformed and severely obese.
AMC's website went down as tickets for the film went on sale.
Stephen McKinley Henderson and Tim Blake Nelson shot scenes for the film as Thufir Hawat and Count Hasimir Fenring respectively. Those scenes were ultimately removed from the final cut, but both receive a "special thanks" in the end credits.
The sequel was given the green light after Dune: Part One (2021) opened at number one at the US box office on its debut weekend, delivering a career-high for Denis Villeneuve and Warner's strongest opening of 2021.
The piece Gurney Halleck plays on the Baliset calls to mind the score of the MS-DOS game Dune (1992).
In Frank Herbert's original novel, Baron Harkonnen is slain by Paul's younger sister, Alia, with a gom jabbar. At roughly four years old she is already a fully cognisant Reverend Mother. Just before he dies she reveals that she is his granddaughter, saying: "I'm sorry, Grandfather... you've met the Atreides gom jabbar". However, in the film it is Paul who kills the Baron, uttering: "You die like an animal, Grandfather."
Many fans criticised the casting of Anglo-Saxon actor Christopher Walken in a part earlier portrayed by a Hispanic (José Ferrer in Dune (1984)) and an Italian (Giancarlo Giannini in the TV miniseries Dune (2000)), yet despite the character's name the novels never describe him as Hispanic, Italian or Middle Eastern. The surname Corrino was assumed by a member of House Butler to link his dynasty to the Battle of Corrin.
Actor-musician Sting, who featured in Dune (1984), declined a cameo in this film. He did, however, attend the New York premiere, accompanied by his daughter Mickey Sumner, on 25 February 2024.
In the novel, Emperor Shaddam IV is described as elderly, yet his physical form resembles that of a man in his thirties. Online fans put forward Mads Mikkelsen, Viggo Mortensen, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Denzel Washington and Charles Dance for the part—actors who are all over fifty yet do not appear to be—before the eventual casting of Christopher Walken in May 2022.
Steven Spielberg described the film as "one of the most brilliant science fiction films I've ever seen", and told Denis Villeneuve that although it is a story that adores the desert, it simultaneously expresses a deep yearning for water. He said that despite all the sand on screen, the picture is really about water — the sacred waters longing for green meadows and the blue water of life. Spielberg observed that Villeneuve shoots the dunes almost as if they were an ocean, likening the sandworms to sea serpents, and called the sequence in which characters surf those sandworms one of the greatest sights he has ever seen, adding that the desert is made to appear liquid. In a Q&A with Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan offered comparable praise, calling the film "a miraculous job of adaptation" and noting that whereas most adaptations tend to condense and simplify, these films — particularly the second instalment — probe further into the complexities and embrace world‑building that extends beyond even the book.
This marks the first live-action screen adaptation of a 'Dune' novel to feature the character Lady Margot Fenring, who was omitted from Dune (1984), Dune (2000), Children of Dune (2003) and Dune: Part One (2021). Elizabeth Debicki, Eva Green, Amy Adams, Natalie Dormer, Olivia Taylor Dudley and Gwyneth Paltrow were all considered for the part before Léa Seydoux was ultimately cast.
In the film it is suggested that Emperor Shaddam IV would face serious peril if the Landsraad were to learn of his secret plot to kill the Great House Atreides. The movie does not go into detail, but the novels explain that the Landsraad is an association of 157 Great Houses that together make up a vast empire spread across some 13,000 planets. Even the Emperor must answer to the Landsraad's High Council, which possesses the power to depose an Emperor if he is judged to be a threat to the empire or to be acting against its interests.
According to Denis Villeneuve, Lady Margot Fenring's role in the film will be somewhat different from the version of the character shown in the original novel. Villeneuve described her as 'a secret agent' and said she would be 'full of surprises'. When asked whether the character would be good or evil, he declined to answer.
Stellan Skarsgård said that the huge prosthetics for Baron Harkonnen actually enhanced his performance: "How do you do your job with 40 kilos of prosthetics on? It's tough — the suit constrains you, but that constraint also acts like the real body fat would, impeding movement. You exploit the costume's resistance to make him slower, which can make him feel more dangerous. You're not trying to convey subtle psychological nuance through action; you want to leave a mark on the screen. He needs a physical presence that, when he enters, stamps the scene and casts a shadow over the rest of the film." Beyond that challenge, Skarsgård found the work rewarding for another reason: he has always alternated between large Hollywood productions and smaller independent films, and this project combined the two. "When an auteur film can be made for $150 million and achieve box-office success, that makes me very pleased," he added.
Director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser frequently selected desert locations for particular sand dunes whose shapes Villeneuve wanted, or for the exact sun angles Fraser required. To keep the desert vistas as unspoilt as possible, they imposed strict discipline on the crew, making them walk in narrow corridors so as not to disturb the sand with footprints before filming. Afterwards, a dedicated 'sand team' swept the sands to erase the prints for the next morning.
The cast comprises two Oscar® winners (Javier Bardem and Christopher Walken) and five Oscar® nominees (Timothée Chalamet, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh and Charlotte Rampling).
"Mahdi", a name the locals referred to Paul by on several occasions throughout the film, derives from Arabic. "Mahdi Al Montathar" or "Mahdi the awaited" is a significant figure in Islam, believed to appear at the end of days to rid the world of evil. Much the same is ascribed to Paul: he rises to wield absolute authority, is seen as a miracle, and his mission is to purge the world of evil.
On 24 August 2023 the film was postponed from 3 November 2023 to 15 March 2024 owing to the SAG‑AFTRA strike. (Warner Bros. wanted the cast to be available for promotional activities.) The release was subsequently brought forward to 1 March 2024.
Austin Butler said that appearing without eyebrows, with black teeth and a shaved head felt liberating because you weren't trying to be anything else.
The narrative contained within this film's complete 166-minute running time is covered by 39 minutes of the 137-minute original Dune (1984), and by 166 minutes of the 270-minute (three episodes of 90 minutes) mini-series Dune (2000) — specifically 76 minutes from the second episode and all of the third episode. Altogether, the Denis Villeneuve films total 321 minutes, which is over twice the length of the David Lynch adaptation.
It was released on the 55th birthday of Javier Bardem.
According to The New York Times columnist Kyle Buchanan, when Austin Butler was named the leading contender to portray Feyd-Rautha, Tye Sheridan and Harry Styles were also reported to be strong contenders for the role.
Denis Villeneuve said of Zendaya, "She's incredibly sharp; she continually shows her brilliance and commanding presence, and she was always on set even when she wasn't filming — just sitting between [cinematographer Greig Fraser] and me, listening, listening and listening. So I wouldn't be surprised if one day we learnt that she wants to [direct]."
The sandworm-riding sequence required 44 days of filming and was shot on a set measuring 90 by 24 feet. When he first read it in the script, cinematographer Greig Fraser wondered how on earth they were going to manage it.
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is portrayed by Austin Butler. Incidentally, the novels include a House Butler that had already become extinct by the time of the first book, although its bloodline endures within House Harkonnen. In Brian Herbert's prequel novels, Feyd-Rautha's birth name was Feyd-Rautha Rabban, after his mother's family (Emmi Rabban). He was taken by his brother Glossu Rabban (portrayed by Dave Bautista in the films) before he reached his second birthday, purportedly to 'prevent him from being brought up too soft and weak', since Glossu and Vladimir Harkonnen felt that Feyd's and Glossu's father — Abulurd Harkonnen, the Baron's half-brother — was far too kind and gentle for the Harkonnen name.
Austin Butler said he drew on Gary Oldman and Heath Ledger while researching and preparing for the film. He revealed: "I've always been inspired by Gary Oldman and many of his roles — Léon: The Professional, True Romance, or The Fifth Element," he added, "and, you know, we've spoken about Heath Ledger a great deal, the sense of play he brought. As I say, it isn't about copying specific things, more about a broader inspiration."
IMAX's chief executive, Richard L. Gelfond, said they "ran out of seats" while attempting to screen the film.
Nowhere in the film are the names Shaddam Corrino IV or Princess Irulan ever spoken aloud.
Although director Denis Villeneuve said he would have liked to make Dune: Part One (2021) and this film at the same time, both productions were lengthy and demanding shoots that would have been far too gruelling. He said he was thankful he could absorb the technical lessons from Part One and recuperate afterwards, which allowed him to refine his approach and produce a stronger film with Part Two.
Earned more at the box office than its predecessor within three weeks of release. However, this isn't a wholly fair comparison, as Dune: Part One opened in cinemas on the same day it premiered on HBO Max due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have diminished its overall box-office takings.
Christopher Walken shot his scenes over the course of three weeks.
The film includes three actors who have each portrayed a James Bond villain — Christopher Walken, Javier Bardem and Dave Bautista — and also features a Bond girl, Léa Seydoux.
The film opens shortly after the conclusion of Dune: Part One (2021), with Paul and Jessica Atreides still travelling with the Fremen to their sietch, the Fremen carrying Jamis's body. These sequences were originally intended to close the first instalment, but a post-production decision relocated them to the sequel.
Stephen McKinley Henderson initially returned to play Thufir Hawat after appearing in Dune: Part One (2021), where his screen time was deliberately limited because his role was planned to be expanded in this instalment. However, to the director Denis Villeneuve's regret, Henderson's entire performance was ultimately left on the cutting-room floor when Villeneuve decided to shift the narrative focus onto the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, leaving little space for Hawat. In Frank Herbert's novel, Hawat is captured during the Harkonnen assault on House Atreides and is deceived into believing that Lady Jessica, rather than Dr. Yueh, was the traitor among them. He is then compelled to serve, reluctantly, as a mentat for the Harkonnens and, unaware that Muad'Dib is Paul Atreides, unwittingly aids their fight against the Fremen. Even so, Hawat subtly manipulates the Harkonnens, sowing discord between the Baron and his nephew Feyd-Rautha. After Paul topples the combined Harkonnen and Imperial forces, Hawat is commanded to poison him, a plot Paul anticipates; Paul nonetheless offers Hawat the choice to carry it out in acknowledgement of his long service to the Atreides, but Hawat chooses to take his own life rather than betray his former masters. Henderson has confirmed he filmed scenes with Austin Butler, implying that, as in the book, Hawat arranged for Feyd-Rautha to face an undrugged Atreides fighter in the gladiatorial contest. With no on-screen resolution to his storyline, the film implies that Hawat may have died during the Harkonnen attack in the previous film.
Austin Butler modelled his vocal delivery on the intonations of Stellan Skarsgård, implying that Feyd-Rautha had been brought up in the company of Baron Harkonnen. Skarsgård was unaware of this decision and was taken aback when he first heard it.
Dave Bautista was advised by his agent not to film the scene in which his character, Beast Rabban, is beaten and humiliated by Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) during the "Kiss or Die" sequence because it would make his character appear less imposing. Bautista, however, refused and filmed the scene anyway, saying it would benefit the story by establishing Feyd-Rautha as the true antagonist.
Across the three film adaptations of Dune, Rabban meets a different fate in each. In this instalment he is slain in combat by Gurney Halleck. In Dune (1984), the Emperor has him executed and his head is presented to the Baron. In Dune (2000), a mob of Arakeen inhabitants tears him apart. The latter mirrors the account in the novel.
Lady Jessica's role is considerably expanded in this adaptation. In the novel she largely recedes into the background in the later sections, but Denis Villeneuve regarded her participation as essential to orchestrating her son's ascent.
Tim Blake Nelson was cast as Count Hasimir Fenring and his scenes were filmed, but his entire role was ultimately cut in the edit. As a result, Count Hasimir's only appearance in a Dune adaptation remains the miniseries Dune (2000), which omitted his wife, Lady Margot Fenring. That scenario is reversed in this film, with Léa Seydoux appearing as Margot, but not her husband.
Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert described it as the finest adaptation of his father's work he had ever seen.
Shot in the heart of the Jordanian desert, the crew were required to construct 18 miles of new road to move all their kit and set up base camps.
Anya Taylor-Joy's cameo was filmed in secret and remained undisclosed until the film premiered.
Hans Zimmer suspected that Denis Villeneuve was already preparing the franchise's third instalment when he visited him while Villeneuve was composing the film's score, and, without uttering a word, left a copy of "Dune Messiah" with him.
In an interview with Reel Blend, Rebecca Ferguson revealed that the production team on set dubbed the Ornithopters "Horny Throbbers".
For Dune: Part One (2021), fight coordinator Roger Yuan concentrated on developing distinct combat styles for the Atreides, the Harkonnen and the Imperial Sardaukar. For this sequel he devised the style Paul teaches the Fremen to defend themselves against the Harkonnen. In the novel it is referred to as 'the Weirding Way', a technique that achieves incredible speed by altering the user's perception of reality. It actually originates with the Bene Gesserit, and in the previous film it is briefly alluded to when the Reverend Mother reproaches Jessica for teaching Paul "the Way", and when Lady Jessica uses it to disarm Stilgar near the end, although it is not explored further. Scenes of Jessica training Paul in the Weirding Way and the Voice were reported to have been filmed but later deleted. The Weirding Way was famously omitted from Dune (1984) because director David Lynch feared it would look like "Kung Fu on sand dunes". Instead, Weirding Modules were conceived as sonic beam weapons, which subsequently appeared in various video games inspired by Lynch's film. This iteration of the Dune story therefore returns to the literary source, with the Fremen relying on close-quarters fighting and stabbing weapons.
Only a couple of weeks after the first rushes from the film began coming in, Warner Bros. approached Denis Villeneuve to see if he would be interested in making a third instalment.
The term 'Kwisatz Haderach' derives from the Hebrew phrase Kefitzat Haderech, meaning a miraculous journey between two distant locations in a short space of time.
The subplot portraying Chani and Fremen from the northern regions of Arrakis as sceptical of the Legend of the Mahdi was entirely invented for the film.
Timothée Chalamet was 23 when he made the first film. In the three years since — much like the character he portrays — he has become more self-assured and authoritative on set, and felt unperturbed about taking the lead in such a vast production.
Across the film, there are references to the Bene Gesserit sisterhood instilling superstitions among the Fremen tribes as a means of controlling the populace. Although that particular branch of the Bene Gesserit is not named in either instalment of Villeneuve's Dune films, the novels identify it as the Missionaria Protectiva.
Michel Seydoux, the great-uncle of Léa Seydoux (Lady Margot Fenring), was originally lined up to produce a Dune adaptation in the 1970s. As recounted in the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune (2013), that project was to be directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, with Charlotte Rampling attached (she appears as the Reverend Mother in this film and its 2021 predecessor). According to a deleted scene from the documentary, Rampling quit over an (later removed) sequence showing extras defecating in unison, and the entire endeavour ultimately collapsed because of prohibitive costs — a projected $8 million budget, which was enormous for the time. Ironically, had Jodorowsky’s film been realised, it would have been the only other adaptation of the novel to feature Léa’s character of Lady Fenring.
Paul's first experience of riding a sandworm is director Denis Villeneuve's favourite sequence in the film.
Not a single set was reused from the first film; each one was constructed expressly for this film.
Souheila Yacoub was not required to audition for the part of Shishakli. Instead casting director Francine Maisler and Denis Villeneuve rang her unexpectedly to offer the role, on the condition that she accepted. Denis Villeneuve had seen her in the TV series No Man's Land (2020). Another possible link is that she appeared in Wajdi Mouawad's play "Birds of all kind" in 2018, and Villeneuve previously adapted Wajdi Mouawad's work for film with Incendies (2010).
Feyd-Rautha's visually striking monochrome gladiatorial bout was shot using purpose-built black-and-white infrared cameras.
Florence Pugh delivered her opening narration on her first day of filming.
In a 2024 interview with That Shelf, Denis Villeneuve explained his approach to portraying Paul’s visions: "I aimed to present the visions as powerful intuitions or dreams that need decoding. They aren’t precise. What Paul experiences is more about the emotion of the dream and a particular context than a clear-cut vision. They function more like puzzles. I found it interesting that Paul has these fears and odd moments of prescience about what might occur, yet they’re not lucid visions. Some of his earlier glimpses are distorted, and when events later come to pass they can be entirely different. We see similar developments in Part Two — the same current, emotion or idea — but distorted from what was foreseen. And I love that. In the book, Paul can perceive multiple possibilities, and that’s what I tried to convey on screen."
At the film's conclusion, Lady Jessica occupies the same chair in which Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam sat while testing Paul at the start of Dune: Part One (2021).
Owing to this film and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), Warner Bros. became the first studio to amass $1 billion at the worldwide box office in 2024. It reached that mark in 15 weeks — a new studio record, outpacing the 17-week pace set in 2018 by Ready Player One (2018) and Rampage (2018).
Although he previously won an Academy Award® (or Oscar®) for Best Musical Score on Dune: Part One (2021), Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for this sequel was controversially ruled ineligible for Oscar® consideration in October 2024, amid claims it allegedly contains an excessive number of musical motifs from the earlier film. The Academy's rules require that scores must comprise at least 80% original material to qualify for award consideration. Many fans, alongside director Denis Villeneuve and Zimmer himself, expressed their disappointment at the Academy's decision; Zimmer argued that "Dune: Part One (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024) are one story, so it would make no sense for me to go and change the theme for the characters." He also pointed out that both Howard Shore and John Williams received nominations despite reusing material in the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars sequels, and cautioned the Academy to consider the broader implications of its rules: "In the back of the studio's mind, the Oscars® are important, and you're influencing the way you are saying whether we can create art or not."
(at around the 25-minute mark) Jessica experiences intense pain after she drinks the Water of Life to become a Reverend Mother. In Dune: Part One (2021), at roughly the same point in the film, Jessica likewise endures intense pain as she shares Paul’s suffering while he is tested by Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam with the Gom Jabbar Pain Box.
Paul defeats Feyd Rautha by employing the same manoeuvre Gurney teaches him in the training scene of Dune: Part One (2021).
In the novel the character Chani is the daughter of Doctor Kynes; in Denis Villeneuve's Dune she is portrayed by Sharon Duncan-Brewster. However, as her parents are not mentioned in Part One or Part Two, it is reasonable to infer that Liet Kynes and Chani are not related in Villeneuve's film universe.
Craig Mazin, the showrunner for The Last of Us (2023), carried out an uncredited polish of the script.
Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin previously appeared alongside one another in No Country for Old Men (2007).
This film has a running time ten minutes longer than Dune: Part One (2021).
This is not the first film in which Charlotte Rampling has taken on the role of a religious organisation's leader attempting to create a messianic figure that her group can control to dominate society. The first instance was Babylon A.D. (2008), directed by Mathieu Kassovitz.
With this film and A Complete Unknown (2024), Timothée Chalamet becomes the first actor since Brad Pitt in 2011 to star as the lead in more than one film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in the same year — Pitt's were Moneyball (2011) and The Tree of Life (2011).
This is the tenth sequel to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, following The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Godfather Part III (1990), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Toy Story 3 (2010), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Of those ten, only The Godfather Part II and The Return of the King have won. Dune: Part Two is also the seventh nominated sequel whose predecessor was likewise nominated, following Bells of St. Mary's, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather Part III, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, and The Way of Water.
It is the nineteenth science-fiction film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, following A Clockwork Orange (1971), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Avatar (2009), District 9 (2009), Inception (2010), Gravity (2013), Her (2013), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Martian (2015), Arrival (2016), The Shape of Water (2017), Black Panther (2018), Don't Look Up (2021), Dune: Part One (2021), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), and Poor Things (2023). Of these nineteen entries, only The Shape of Water and Everything Everywhere All at Once were winners.
Filmmaker Max Hechtman named the film his favourite of 2024. Others who praised the film include James Cameron, Edward Berger, Francis Ford Coppola, Adam Elliot, Jeff Fowler, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Luca Guadagnino, David Lowery and Gints Zilbalodis.
This film received Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects, the same categories in which Dune: Part One (2021) was honoured. This represents the tenth occasion on which a sequel has won the same Academy Award(s) as its predecessor, following:
- The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974) – both secured Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay
- Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – both won Best Sound
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – both received Best Visual Effects
- Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) – both awarded Best Visual Effects
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–03) – each film won Best Visual Effects (The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King also won Best Original Score and Best Makeup, while The Two Towers and The Return of the King both claimed Best Sound)
- Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021) – each received Best Original Song
- Toy Story 3 (2010) and Toy Story 4 (2019) – both won Best Animated Feature
- Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) – both awarded Best Costume Design
- Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) – both won Best Visual Effects
