Los Angeles, Mar 9 (IANS): Actress Florence Pugh is in negotiations to join the cast of 'Dune: Part 2', a follow-up to the critically acclaimed, commercially successful (for a pandemic) 'Dune'.

If the deal closes, Pugh will play Princess Irulan Corrino, a royal who becomes romantically entangled with Timothee Chalamet's Paul Atreides.

It's a critical role, one with the potential to grow if "Dune" stretches deeper into novelist Frank Herbert's literary canon.

Production on the sequel is expected to start this summer, and the film is slated to hit theaters on October 20, 2023. It brings back much of the ensemble from the first film, including Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya and Javier Bardem, reports variety.com.

Denis Villeneuve, credited with making a book thought to be unadaptable into something cinematic and comprehensible, returns as director. For a sign of how terribly these things can go, look no further than David Lynch's justly excoriated 1984 version of the same source material.

'Dune' grossed nearly $400 million globally and snagged 10 Oscar nominations, including nods for best picture and best adapted screenplay.

Villeneuve was snubbed in the best director category, an omission that produced some blowback.

Pugh recently reprised her role as Yelena Romanoff on the Disney Plus series 'Hawkeye'.

She will soon be seen acting opposite Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Matt Damon in Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer', and will also appear in Olivia Wilde's 'Don't Worry Darling and Sebastian Lelio's 'The Wonder'.