The future of Arrakis is at stake in latest trailer for Dune: Part Two

We didn’t get to see Dune: Part Two—the second film in director Denis Villeneuve’s stunning adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic—last month as originally planned since the film’s November release was delayed until next March due to the Hollywood strikes. But Warner Bros. doesn’t want us to completely forget about Dune in the meantime, so it dropped another trailer for the holiday season.

(Spoilers for Dune: Part One below.)

As reported previously (also here and here), Herbert’s novel Dune is set in the distant future and follows the fortunes of various noble houses in what amounts to a feudal interstellar society. Much of the action takes place on the planet Arrakis, where the economy is driven largely by a rare, life-extending drug called melange (“the spice”). Melange also conveys a kind of prescience and makes faster-than-light travel practical. There’s betrayal, a prophecy concerning a messianic figure, giant sandworms, and battle upon battle as protagonist Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) contends with rival House Harkonnen and strives to defeat the forces of Shaddam IV, Emperor of the Known Universe.

Part One‘s finale left Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), presumed dead in the harsh desert of Arrakis, having fled their home when Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) betrayed the Atreides family and killed Paul’s father, Leto (Oscar Isaac). They were taken in by the Fremen, the planet’s native inhabitants, who include Chani (Zendaya), a girl appearing in Paul’s dreams/visions.

All the surviving principles from Part 1 reprise their roles in Part 2: Chalamet, Zendaya, Ferguson, Skarsgård, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, Charlotte Rampling as the Reverend Mother Mohiam, and Stephen McKinley Henderson as Thufir Hawat. New cast members include Christopher Walken as Shaddam IV, emperor of House Corrine; Florence Pugh as his daughter, Princess Irulan; Austin Butler as Harkonnen’s younger nephew, Feyd-Rautha, the presumed heir on Arrakis; Lea Seydoux as Lady Margot, a Bene Gesserit who is close with the Emperor; and Souheila Yacoub as a Fremen warrior named Shishakli.

The first trailer dropped in May after being unveiled in an exclusive sneak peek during CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The highlight was a sequence showing Paul’s first ride on a sandworm. It’s a major rite of passage in Fremen culture, and the scene demonstrates that, in Part 2, Paul is well on his way to becoming Muad’Dib, prophet of the Fremen. A second trailer arrived in June, showing Paul offering to fight with the Fremen against their common enemy, though not everyone welcomes his inclusion. We also saw a reunion with Halleck; Shaddam IV learning that Paul is still alive; Feyd-Rautha’s lethal knife-fighting skills; and love blooming between Paul and Chani.

That love story is a major focus of this latest trailer after two that mostly highlighted the war for the future of Arrakis. The trailer opens with Paul having one of his recurring nightmares and Chani comforting him. He can only remember fragments but later tells Chani that he sees “possible futures all at once. And in so many futures, our enemies prevail.” He said, “There is a narrow way through.” Meanwhile, the Emperor orders assassins to “deal with this prophet.” One person who might get the job done is Feyd-Rautha, described as psychotic as we see him staring someone down while licking a sharp curved blade and brutally stabbing an opponent in an arena while a crowd cheers wildly.

There’s a fantastic battle scene involving Fremen warriors riding sandworms, and we catch a glimpse of the darker side of Paul when he screams “Silence!” after Mother Mohian asks him to carefully consider his planned course of action. Despite the war, he vows to love Chani “as long as I breathe.” She claims he will never lose her “as long as you stay who you are.” But fans of the books know that the romance has its complications, and given one new cast member in particular, we can expect to see the beginnings of those complications.

Dune: Part Two hits theaters on March 1, 2024.

Listing image by YouTube/Warner Bros.