The Dune films directed by Denis Villeneuve have drawn audience and critical acclaim since the first film was released in 2021. Based on the book series written by Frank Herbert published starting in 1965, Dune plunged fans into sands of the planet Arrakis and the deadly battle for a resource called spice. Although Villeneuve’s most recent additions have been extremely successful, there have been several previous directors who attempted to bring the story to life on the big and the small screen.
For a full guide to how to watch all of the Dune movies and TV shows in order and where to stream them, check out the JustWatch list below!
How to Watch Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Movies in Order
French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve has risen to the fore as one of the best sci-fi filmmakers since the turn of the century. Before Dune, he was most known for his films Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. In an interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, he said he had dreamed of making Dune since the age of 13, but never quite imagined he would be the one to make the definitive adaptation.
His Dune films star Timothée Chalamet as the young Paul Atreides, Rebecca Ferguson as his mother, Lady Jessica, Zendaya as the Fremen Chani, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, and others. Here’s the list of Villeneuve era Dune content in chronological order:
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Dune: Prophecy - TV series
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Dune: Part Three (TBA)
Dune: Prophecy is a television series set within the same continuity as Villeneuve's films. The series takes place some 10,000 years before Paul Atreides and tells the story of the foundation of the mysterious order of the Bene Gesserit. The following film trilogy (Parts One – Three) takes up the story where the first Dune book starts and follows the life of Paul Atreides as he goes from the son of a Duke to an exiled and leader of the Fremen, before eventually becoming Emperor.
How to Watch Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune
In the 1970s, Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky attempted to make an incredibly ambitious and costly adaptation of Dune for the first time — although it never saw the light of day due to financial issues. In 2013, a documentary about the film was released that included some spectacular information about the production, including that Jodorowsky created a 3,000 sketch storyboard for the film with renowned French cartoonist Moebius, and that Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalì was meant to play the Emperor.
How to Watch David Lynch’s Dune
In 1984, director David Lynch was hired to fully adapt Dune for the big screen for the first time. What resulted was a critical flop that included some exciting innovations but was deemed an overall confusing and disappointing retelling of Herbert’s first book. In later interviews, Lynch would refer to Dune as “gigantic sadness in [his] life” due to his lack of creative freedom on the project.
How to Watch the Frank Herbert Dune Miniseries
In 2000, the Sci Fi Channel miniseries directed by John Harrison took a different, more detailed, approach to the books with a miniseries format. The show starred Alec Newman as Paul Atreides, William Hurt as Duke Leto Atreides, and Saskia Reeves as Lady Jessica.
While Frank Herbert’s Dune depicts the events of the first book (like Dune 1984 and Dune: Parts One and Two), the sequel series, Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune, goes further into the series, covering the books Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.
How to Watch All the Dune Movies and TV Series in Order
For all the fans who want to attempt to watch the Dune movies in chronological order, here’s a general timeline to follow:
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Dune: Prophecy
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Dune: Part One
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Dune: Part Two
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Dune 1984 (for a different telling of Dune: Parts One and Two)
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Frank Herbert’s Dune (for a different telling of Dune: Parts One and Two)
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Dune: Part Three
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Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune (for a different telling of Dune: Part Three)
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Jodorowsky’s Dune
Due to the fact that there have been several retellings of the books, rather than a progressive timeline, we suggest you start with the prequel series and then work your way through the Villeneuve films (Parts One, Two, and Three) before finishing with Jodorowsky’s Dune for a Dune-related documentary. David Lynch’s Dune and the Frank Herbert Dune miniseries are included, but it should be noted they are previous iterations of the same story that Villeneuve masterfully retold, rather than films providing new storylines.
Where to watch all Dune movies and TV shows online
Check out the full list of all the Dune movies and TV series in order below to find out where you can stream them across platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Netflix, and more!
