Strap into your stillsuits and conserve your water, because we’re going back to Arrakis!
The trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two teases our return to the beautiful — yet dangerous — desert planet. We pick up right where the first Dune left off, with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) assimilating into the Fremen tribe led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem). There, Paul falls in love with Chani (Zendaya), and vows to help free Arrakis from its oppressors and transform it into a watery paradise.
It won’t be easy: Paul will face much opposition, especially from new characters introduced in the trailer. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and his nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista) have already established themselves as brutal enemies. However, a new threat arises: the Baron’s younger nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler). He’s a deadly swordsman hell-bent on taking out Paul. Also, he’s bald.
Elsewhere in the trailer, we get our first glimpse of Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), the daughter of the all-powerful Padishah Emperor (Christopher Walken) who suspects that Paul may still be alive. In Frank Herbert’s Dune, many chapters open with excerpts from Irulan’s writings, so expect her to be an authority on all things Paul Atreides.
But the coolest part of the trailer, hands down, comes when Paul takes on a Fremen rite of passage: his first ride on a sandworm. Do I wish Dune: Part Two had kept this sequence more of a surprise? Most definitely. Am I still excited to see Paul latching onto the sandworm? You betcha. The thumper! The maker hooks! The sand flying everywhere! All hail the majesty of Shai-Hulud.
