Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune is sometimes mistaken for a standard hero’s-journey story about Paul Atreides, its main character, and his rise to greatness in a far-future human civilization centered on the desert planet Arrakis. But it’s actually a story about how Paul fails to avoid his destiny of becoming an interstellar tyrant. For anyone who fails to detect this theme in the original, Herbert’s sequel makes it clear. Taking place after Paul’s conquests, Dune Messiah has him reflect on them, with reference to Earth’s history. Genghis Khan “killed . . . perhaps four million.” Hitler “killed more than six million,” which Paul calls “pretty good for those days.” As for Paul: “At a conservative estimate, I’ve killed sixty-one billion, sterilized ninety planets, completely demoralized five hundred others. I’ve wiped out the followers of forty religions . . .”

But now Paul, vanquisher of planets, peoples, and faiths, has been laid low by an unexpected force from our own pale blue dot: the various entertainment-industry strikes that have put Hollywood in a standstill. Trade-industry publication Variety reports that, because of the strikes, Dune: Part Two will now be released in March 2024, not the previously scheduled November 2023.

Given my enthusiasm for Dune generally, my anticipation for this cinematic sequel, and my praise of Dune: Part One (qualified mostly by the fact that its forced bisection of what is obviously one story deprived of it a proper climax), I might be expected to advocate anything, up to and including Paul-esque levels of cruelty (Sardaukar Pinkertons, anyone?), to end the strikes and get Dune: Part Two out. But my understanding of these strikes, informed in part by the most recent episode of the Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast (with striking writer Rob Long), accepts that the striking parties have some worthy points. That won’t stop me from wishing fervently for a resolution to the situation. After all, if we’re not getting Dune: Part Two until March 2024 at the earliest, we’ll have to wait even longer for the rumored but as-yet-unconfirmed Dune Messiah adaptation with the same cast.

That Dune:Part One was also rescheduled is little consolation. For now, one can only conclude with resignation that this cinematic Kwisatz Haderach has been delayed for another generation. Er, year.