The Frank Herbert Dune Saga is being set up as a potentially massive franchise. Work is underway on Denis Villeneuve‘s reboot of the story for the big screen and an HBO Max series, Dune: The Sisterhood is already in motion as a spin-off of the new movie. Now, THR is reporting that the showrunner of the new series is jumping ship, but not jumping franchise. He’s leaving the Sisterhood so that he can focus all of his attention on a sequel for the yet to be released film.
That’s right, Dune isn’t set to come out for another 13 months in December of 2020, but Warner Bros is already moving forward with a sequel in addition to a companion TV series. Jon Spaihts had been set up as the showrunner to the new series, but he’ll now be serving as the screenwriter for the big-screen sequel.
The new Dune film stars Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides alongside a cast that also includes Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem.