Dune: Part Two Trailer Breakdown - Long Live The Fighters
Praise Shai-Hulud! We live in a time when one of our most gifted and genuinely visionary filmmakers has set his sights on one of the most influential stories of our time: "Dune." And, against all odds, Warner Bros. Pictures has actually committed to a two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's challenging, dense, and incredibly innovative 1965 novel.
Director Denis Villeneuve proved the skeptics wrong in 2021 when he unveiled the first film to a hungry audience and managed to turn a supposedly "unfilmable" book into a digestible blockbuster for the masses. Now, he's returning to blow minds even further with "Dune: Part Two."
The highly-anticipated sequel comes with sky-high expectations and all sorts of pressure — not just to deliver a box office hit that will (hopefully) lead to even more sequels down the line, but to clear the already-high bar he set for himself and produce yet another definitive adaptation that entertains both casual fans and voracious book readers alike. It's still way too early to call the race just yet, but today brings us the first official trailer for "Dune: Part Two."
The first film ended with House Atreides in shambles at the hands of the villainous Harkonnens. Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides was cast out into the desert of Arrakis with his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). But upon meeting the mysterious Fremen and linking up with Chani (Zendaya) — the subject of Paul's visions throughout the film — his first step into this wider world ended with the implicit promise of an even greater adventure to come.
That tease has finally been paid off with our first look at the trailer, featuring thumpers, romance, war, and sandworms, oh my! Let's dive right into it without further ado.
How you Dune?
Denis Villeneuve previously remarked that "Dune: Part Two" would be treated less as a sequel and more of a continuation of where the first film left off. The trailer proves the truth of that comment as we kick off with Paul and Chani sharing during a quiet and peaceful moment among the sand dunes of Arrakis.
Chani, having lived on the desert world her entire life, couldn't be more different than Paul, who grew up among the wide oceans and abundant pools of Caladan. We glimpsed the Atreides home planet at the very beginning of "Dune" and now Paul gets to share his childhood memories with someone who can truly appreciate it — even if she has a hard time wrapping her mind around it. Their brief but sweet interaction here also lines up with Villeneuve's intention to make their relationship the heart of the sequel. The trailer is chock-full of sweeping landscape shots and images of war and threats that'll soon rain down on Arrakis, but it speaks volumes that the footage opens on something as small and intimate as two space dorks trying to flirt.
The Atreides family, of course, has been decimated by Harkonnen forces and compelled to flee into the desert. As the last survivors of their House, Paul and the Lady Jessica have no choice but to carry on the late Duke's (Oscar Isaac) legacy and attempt to survive among the indigenous Fremen clans deep in the desert. But does the rest of the planet — and, indeed, the galaxy at large — assume that all the members of House Atreides have been extinguished, too? The answer to that is heavily hinted at in the next bit of footage.
The shadows of Arrakis
"In the shadows of Arrakis lie many secrets ... but the darkest of them all may remain."
Hey, that voice sure sounds familiar! As we zoom in on an image of the Lady Jessica riding among a regiment of Fremen, we pivot to Florence Pugh's rather regal-looking new character. We recently wrote a full-length explainer on Princess Irulan, the daughter of the Padishah Emperor (the Emperor himself will be played by Christopher Walken, who doesn't appear in this trailer), and even this quick glimpse confirms one major detail straight from the book that will make any hardcore "Dune" fan happy.
The princess appears to be holding up some sort of recorder as she monologues about Arrakis, in line with how author Frank Herbert preceded almost every chapter in the original book with a short excerpt from historical books, diary entries, and other recordings from the future that were credited to Irulan. The only difference, of course, is that the movie version of the character seems to be documenting these events in real-time as opposed to setting them down years later.
In any case, her ponderings go on to reveal that, even among the Emperor's inner circle, the possibility that Paul actually lives is starting to take hold. The fall of House Atreides may not have been as definitive as the Baron hoped, even as we watch Harkonnen soldiers (or, alternately, the elite Sardaukar forces sent by the Emperor) burn what's left of the Duke's possessions — including an evocative painting of the Duke himself. With Paul and Lady Jessica eking out a meager existence with the Fremen, well, it's likely that those "shadows" are a reference to them.
Catch this Feyd(-Rautha)
Ask and you shall receive. Ever since Austin Butler (of "Elvis" fame) was first cast in "Dune: Part Two," eager fans have awaited the first reveal of his transformation into the role of Feyd-Rautha, the nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and younger brother of Dave Bautista's Glossu "Beast" Rabban. After the quickest of teases in the recent sneak peek, the trailer finally delivers the clearest look yet of the antagonist in all his bald and smooth, uh, glory.
If you read our exclusive breakdown of Butler's character, you'll know that his appearance is a far cry from how he's described in the book. But this makeover certainly makes him appear to have a piece of both of the main Harkonnen characters, boasting the formidable physical presence of Rabban but maintaining the cool intellect of the Baron. We see him later on in full Harkonnen armor, yelling savagely as he stands over another bald-headed individual in what appears to be a fighting pit. Consider this just a taste of what this younger and more imposing villain will be capable of throughout the sequel.
Getting the team back together?
Though much of the attention for "Dune: Part Two" will focus on the new and most headline-grabbing additions to the cast of the sequel, we'd be remiss if we left out the returning characters. As mentioned, the likeness of the Duke makes one last appearance before becoming consumed by the flames and the footage repeatedly returns to Paul and the Lady Jessica, notably as the latter solemnly states to her son that, "Your father didn't believe in revenge." But confirmation of yet another returning character appears with the first look at Josh Brolin's Gurney Halleck, Paul's sparring partner and mentor who exited the first "Dune" rather abruptly amid the chaos of the Harkonnen and Sardaukar surprise attack on the Atreides. It was left ambiguous as to whether he actually made it out alive or not (similar to Stephen McKinley's Thufir Haway, who is nowhere to be seen in this trailer), but at least some members of the Duke's house managed to escape the Harkonnens unscathed. Logic dictates that Gurney will attempt to reconnect with Paul and his mother, but that likely won't be as easy as it sounds.
Water of life
For anyone who may have had concerns that "Dune: Part Two" wouldn't delve deep into the fascinating and oftentimes bizarre lore of the original book, worry no more. This tantalizing and out-of-context glimpse of some robed figure holding a vial of water stands out particularly compared to the rest of the quick montage that follows: images of the surface of Arrakis bathed in a sickly red light (noticeably reminiscent of the color grading from the David Lynch adaptation of "Dune"); the Baron standing (or floating?) over a kneeling Beast Rabban; flashes of both Paul and Chani out in the desert and suited up in their protective "stillsuits," and a look at Léa Seydoux's new character Margot Fenring, whom Villeneuve teased as a Bene Gesserit "secret agent." The distinctive robe in this shot might suggest that another member of the Bene Gesserit is holding this vial, but most book readers will immediately think of the crucial "water of life" moment from the second half of the book. Without spoiling anything, it seems clear that things are about to get very weird, indeed.
Nothing fancy
Who says "Dune" can't have a sense of humor? In a scene that most assumed would be front-and-center of the marketing for "Part Two," Paul embarks on the Fremen coming-of-age ritual of riding one of the monstrous sandworms that populate the deserts of Arrakis. With nothing but a couple of hooks, lots of gumption, and a fair bit of recklessness, this is meant to mark the moment where children become adults and, for a very select few, outsiders are embraced as one of the clan ... provided that they can actually pull it off without dying a horrible death, of course. As epic and awe-inspiring as this sequence will surely be, it's somewhat refreshing to see the trailer edited in a way to emphasize Paul's wry sense of humor as he promises not to do anything "fancy." Humor was an element that some found lacking overall in the first film, but between this and Paul and Chani's innocent dynamic, perhaps there'll be some lighthearted moments in between all the doom and gloom of this epic story.
Black and white
No, this isn't a deleted scene featuring the Engineers from Ridley Scott's "Alien: Covenant." This is our first real look at Feyd-Rautha in action, though it's unclear if this is meant to be a flashback or a scene taking place in the current day. If it's the latter, then Villeneuve has opted for one of the most exciting visual flourishes of these movies. See, this scene likely takes place on the Harkonnen home world of Geidi Prime, a heavily-industrialized planet choked by smog and pollution. In an interesting twist, "Part Two" appears to depict all of these scenes in washed-out tones of black and white, rendering an alien quality to this setting and highlighting the savagery of what Feyd-Rautha must do in order to survive the planet's famous fighting pits.
This is where we first meet the character in the novel, wielding his signature dual knives and showing off his finely-honed abilities for thousands to see. Among the crowd in the gladiator-like arena appears to be Margot Fenring, whom we later see Feyd making quite an intimate advance on. Could this be another parallel to Paul, this time as a dark twist on his and Chani's blossoming romance?
Knife fight
There are two major scenes in this trailer that book readers would be most looking forward to: Paul riding the sandworm, and the duel to the death between him and Feyd-Rautha. As the symbolic leaders of their respective houses, the two are practically destined for a collision course that can only end in violence. Expect much of the film to set up just how much of a threat young Feyd will pose to Paul and the Fremen, though this time his test will be many orders of magnitude tougher than the one Paul survived at the end of "Dune" against the Fremen Jamis (Babs Olusanmokun).
And in case any fans are disappointed that the trailer would end on such a seemingly big reveal, remember that this is "Dune" and absolutely nothing is resolved as neatly and orderly as it might in other stories. Needless to say, there's no telling exactly how Villeneuve will adapt the events of the second half of Herbert's book or how many bigger developments in the sequel are being kept under wraps. Either way, avid fans will recognize the menacing sentence that the now blue-eyed Paul utters before his fight: "May thy knife chip and shatter." This, it seems, could be the payoff to the "Long live the fighters" tagline of the film.
And to think this only scratches the surface of what "Dune: Part Two" will undoubtedly offer. It's going to be a long wait until the spice flows once again; the film hits theaters on November 3, 2023.