Conqueror of Worlds, Prisoner of Destiny: Inside the New “Dune: Part Three” Trailer
The official trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three opens on the relationship that’s been most central to the director’s grand, hugely ambitious adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi opus. Chani (Zendaya) and Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) face off—not in battle gear, but in a moment of intimate heartbreak. Chani has been betrayed, and she lets Paul know exactly how she feels. The two met in Dune: Part One, when Paul was a princeling on the run after House Atreides had been decimated and he and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), were scrambling in the wildlands of Arrakis. Chani, a Fremen, helped Paul and Lady Jessica escape and rebuild their lives. By the end of Part Two Paul had avenged his father, killing Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), defeating and killing Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler), and taking the place of Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) as the Emperor of the Known Universe. It was quite a ride for Paul, one he’d never have survived without Chani.
Part of the deal in taking over as Emperor was that Paul married his daughter, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), thus turning his back on his true love, Chani, in his quest for vengeance and what he believed was his fate. As the official trailer for Part Three makes clear, Chani’s anger at Paul stems from his growing lust for power. “You promised me you’d never take power in your name,” she tells him, and then we see a bloodied Paul on the battlefield, clearly on the path to conquering any and all who stand in his way. “You convinced me this was your home,” Chani says. “That I was your home.”
Chani isn’t the only one who finds the new Paul quite removed from his old self. Jason Momoa returns, not as his former character Duncan Idaho, but as Hayt, a ghola, which in the Dune universe is an artificially created human grown from the cells of a deceased person. Hayt tells Paul that he’s conquered the galaxy and destroyed thousands of worlds. When Paul asks what his thoughts are on that, he says, “You’re way beyond redemption.” Hayt has arrived with a peace proposal, but he warns Paul that its true aim is to destroy him. Enter Scytale (Robert Pattinson), a shape-shifting Face Dancer who leads a conspiracy against Paul. He will serve as the main antagonist in Part Three.
“It’s a very different movie from the first ones,” Villeneuve explained to a select group of journalists in Los Angeles at a mid-March event to premiere the first trailer for the final film in his trilogy. Revealing that it has “a different tone, a different rhythm, and a different pace,” he continued, “The first movie was more a contemplation, the second one was a war movie, and this one is more action-packed, more tense, and more muscular.” Then, at CinemaCon this past April, Villeneuve told the audience that Part Three was more of a thriller. “It’s more intense and definitely more emotional,” he said.
It’s fitting that the official trailer ends with Paul, not in galactic conqueror mode, but aghast at what he’s become. “Forgive me,” he says, “for all I’ve done.”
Dune: Part Three arrives in theaters on December 18.
Featured image: Timothée Chalamet is Paul Atreides and Jason Momoa is Hayt in Dune: Part Three. Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
