Director Denis Villeneuve flags ‘more intense story’ as he unveils epic new Dune trailer

Dune director Denis Villeneuve has unveiled the new trailer for the third and final chapter of Frank Herbert’s literary magnum opus-turned-blockbuster film trilogy, revealing the first glimpses of the intergalactic conflict that tears the fictional Dune universe apart.

The trailer and a sneak peek of one of the film’s extraordinary action sequences were screened to fans during a global event that linked an IMAX theatre in Los Angeles, where Villeneuve was speaking, to IMAX theatres in London, Berlin, Abu Dhabi, Chicago, Dallas, Toronto, Montreal and Mexico City.

Dune: Part Three will be released in cinemas later this year. Based on Herbert’s 1960s and 1970s book series, it stars Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, the heir to a royal house in a distant galaxy where power is vested in the trade of a rare spice.

The film also stars Zendaya as Fremen warrior Chani; Jason Momoa as Hayt, a simulacrum of Paul’s mentor Duncan Idaho; and Florence Pugh as Irulan, Paul’s wife. The major new addition to the cast in the upcoming film is Robert Pattinson, who plays Scytale, a shape-shifting villain who plans to dethrone Paul.

In the trailer, Chani accuses Paul of betraying a promise to never “take power in [his] name” and, in a different scene, Scytale is heard pushing for “regime change”, confirming his plan to either kill Paul or remove him from power.

Having completed the first two films in 2021 and 2024, Villeneuve was expected to take a break before finishing the third chapter. Instead, he immediately began working on it.

“I said to everybody, ‘Listen, I’m taking a break,’ and I went back home and two things happened: I kept waking up in the night with images and these images started to get stronger and stronger, and I felt an appetite and a joy and a desire to finish that story,” Villeneuve told media at the trailer launch.

The 58-year-old Quebec-born director and screenwriter said he also felt responsibility to bring the film trilogy to a close. “I was planning to go to Dune: Part Three in a few years from now, but I said to myself, ‘Would it be a better idea to, instead of going back to Arrakis for nostalgia, to go there by necessity and honour these images that are coming to my mind right now?’ ” he said. “I wrote the movie right away.”

The final film chapter is based on the book Dune: Messiah, which Villeneuve said Herbert wrote partly in reaction to way his readers had interpreted Paul Atreides as a purely heroic figure. Herbert’s intention was that the character of Paul would be far more ambiguous.

Villeneuve describes the third chapter as a substantial departure from the first two films. “I said, ‘I don’t want us to walk into our own footsteps; it’s a very different beast.’ It’s more of a thriller. It’s a more intense story, and it’s definitely more emotional. It’s a Dune movie, but it has a very different rhythm, and it’s more intense.”

From the trailer it is clear that the story is a powerful parable about charismatic leadership. Though the film does not comment directly on the state of global geopolitics in 2026, it is not difficult in the trailer to see immediate parallels to the dangers of unchecked power.

“The clues were in the book,” said Chalamet, who – unsurprisingly given the marketing energy being poured into the film by Warner Bros – made a surprise appearance at the trailer launch in Los Angeles, and joined Villeneuve on stage.

“Frank Herbert and Denis hopefully painted a nuanced picture of a sort of warning to beware leaders, charismatic leaders,” Chalamet said. “I think the proof is in the pudding. It’s in the original book [and] in the screenplay.”

Chalamet also noted, as a fan of another great film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, that he was pleased to see the story come full circle in a third chapter.

“He could have taken years between these projects, and instead he buckled in, and we got it done right away,” Chalamet said. “I’m a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy; I’m trying to imagine the last time someone knocked out three films consecutively.”

With principal photography now complete, Villeneuve said the most impactful experience of making the Dune films was filming Abu Dhabi’s Liwa Desert, which stands in for the desert world of Arrakis.

“Every morning, I could feel the energy as the sun came up and the crew felt the excitement and the wonder,” Villeneuve said. “In every crew member’s eyes you felt that that energy and the power of the desert, and how inspiring.

“It’s a crazy journey to bring a massive film crew to the deep desert, but then the reward was seeing these smiles every morning and every morning I had these chills. You felt that. It was extraordinary.”

Chalamet concurred. “The tranquillity of that environment and how still the mornings were,” the 30-year-old New York-born actor said. “It’s amazing they’ll set these locations where you almost feel like you’re on a safari or something, [there is] a gorgeous walk to get to a location to work, but just a really special experience to get to shoot in the desert. Incredible.”

The trailer for Dune: Part Three and an extended clip from the film will be shown ahead of IMAX 70mm screenings of The Odyssey. The film will be released in December.