“Do you remember your first ride?”
“Dune: Part Two” is continuing the sprawling epic of Denis Villeneuve’s space-set saga with the latest trailer.
Tuesday’s teaser gave us an eerie first look at Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides trying to lure a giant sandworm on Arrakis along with eerie tableaux of the ensemble cast. Now, we finally get a full look at “Part Two.” Watch below.
The second film returns us to the mythic journey of Paul as he unites with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.
The Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Entertainment film was shot entirely in IMAX by cinematographer Greig Fraser (2022 Oscar winner for “Part One”), whereas only about 40 percent of the original movie was in IMAX. Warner Bros. is going all out with a theatrical release in November, unlike the first movie, which premiered during the pandemic day and date on big screens and HBO Max.
Director Villeneuve shared a first look at the sci-fi epic during the 2023 CinemaCon convention, clarifying that he sees the follow-up film as a continuation and “not a sequel” for the first feature, which won six Academy Awards.
“‘Part Two’ is more action-packed, epic war movie, much more bulk, much more dance,” Villeneuve said, calling the first “Dune” just an “appetizer” leading into the “main course” of “Part Two.”
Villeneuve co-wrote the script with Jon Spaihts, adapting the rest of Frank Herbert’s novel. “Part Two” resurrects Arrakis using entirely new sets and design pieces from the first film. The follow-up also picks up immediately after “Dune” without a time jump.
While most of the ensemble “Dune” cast returns, the follow-up film boasts franchise newcomers Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux, and Austin Butler. Pugh plays Princess Irulan, the daughter of Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken), who is the supreme ruler of the galaxy.
Pugh’s character is described as a “political chess player” by Villeneueve, with Butler’s sadistic (and bald!) Harkonnen prince Feyd-Rautha is an “Olympic sword master crossed with a psychotic serial killer.”
Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Rebecca Ferguson reprise their roles from the original film.
Villeneuve confirmed that the second installment is in part a love story centered around Chalamet’s Paul and Zendaya’s Chani, who will be getting more screen time as a duo.
“I wanted to make a very human movie, very close to the characters, despite the scope of the film,” the auteur told Vanity Fair. “I kept saying to my crew, ‘The most important thing is that spark, that relationship between both of these characters.’ If we don’t capture that, if we don’t have that onscreen, there’s no movie. The epicenter of the story is this relationship.”
“Dune: Part Two” will deftly navigate the pitfalls Villeneuve perceived from the first movie, with the Academy Award nominee telling Vanity Fair that he had to “accept [my] failures as an artist” over “Dune.”
“It’s a task that was almost impossible, for me to be absolutely faithful to what those childhood dreams were,” Villeneuve said. “But what brings a lot of peace in my heart is that I brought a lot of them to the screen, a lot of them are close to what I had imagined.”
“Dune: Part Two” premieres November 3 in theaters. Check out the trailer below. For all the details on “Dune: Part Two,” click here.
