Dune: Part 2 Release Date Bumped Up by Two Weeks

Warner Bros. has bumped up the release date of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two by just two weeks, announcing on Friday that it’s been moved from March 15, 2024 to March 1, 2024.

Funny enough, the studio made the announcement on Nov. 17, the day it was once supposed to debut. It was moved from Nov. 17 to Nov. 3 in August 2022, then delayed in August 2023 amid the then-ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes. At the time, it was speculated that WB made the delay due to the fact that stars like Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya wouldn’t be able to do press for Dune: Part Two if the SAG-AFTRA strike was still continuing.

With the actors’ strike having ended on Nov. 9 and production and promotion allowed to continue, many studios have been solidifying their release calendars after a long period of uncertainty.

Interestingly enough, WB made the announcement just a couple of days after Universal Pictures moved its Ryan Gosling action film The Fall Guy from the March 1 date, pushing it back to May 3. It’s hard to say whether that specifically played into WB’s decision, but it does remove some competition for Dune: Part Two.

What’s not included in Friday’s announcement are any changes to the releases dates of other upcoming WB movies Wonka (currently set for Dec. 15) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Dec. 20), seeming to indicate that it’s sticking with releasing those movies in 2023. That’s not terribly surprising particularly in the case of the latter, with WB recently bumping up that movie by just two days.

The first Dune, of course, opened in theaters and on HBO Max (now simply Max) simultaneously in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Warner Bros. also has prequel TV series, recently renamed from Dune: The Sisterhood to Dune: Prophecy, set to come out next fall.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.