Timothée Chalamet and Robert Downey Jr. are combining forces to create a new Barbenheimer phenomenon.
Chalamet, 30, and Downey, 60, noted during a recent Q&A that the Iron Man star moderated for Chalamet’s Marty Supreme that two of the year’s most hotly anticipated movies — Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three — will hit theaters on the same day in December.
“We both have films opening on December 18, and we decided to coin it — we’re thinking Dunesday,” Downey told the audience during the pair’s Q&A, per Variety and videos from the event shared to X on Thursday Jan. 15. “We’ll see if we’re still friends by then.”
Downey, of course, is returning to the Avengers franchise as the villain Victor Von Doom in Doomsday, the first Avengers movie since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. While the movie has not yet shared any official images of the actor as Doctor Doom, Doomsday has already released four trailers that tease the returns of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers; Chris Hemsworth as Thor; Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and James Marsden as Professor X, Magneto and Cyclops; and Letitia Wright, Winston Duke and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as their characters Shuri, M’Baku and The Thing from The Fantastic Four.
Chalamet, meanwhile, will reprise his Dune role as Paul Atredes for Dune: Part Three, an adaptation of author Frank Herbert’s 1969 novel of the same name. Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson and Anya Taylor-Joy are each expected to reprise their roles, while Robert Pattinson has a new role in the franchise (as does Momoa’s son Nakoa-Wolf, 17.)
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The combined popularity of the Avengers and Dune series could create a similar situation to July 2023’s “Barbenhimer,” when Barbie and Oppenheimer — two of that year’s most popular movies — released on the same day. Moviegoers raced out to see both movies throughout its opening weekend, leading to the largest collective opening weekend at the box office since the COVID-19 pandemic at that time.
Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three hit theaters Dec. 18.