Dune: Part Three Trailer Teases One Fundamental Change From The Books
Shifting faces and shifting alliances.
Dune is a story of the danger of messiahs. It’s a cautionary tale warning against tyrants, a condemnation of religious zealotry, and a dense sci-fi saga about big worms that can make you hallucinate so hard you bend space-time. And Dune: Part Three, Denis Villeneuve’s anticipated final film in his Dune movie trilogy, looks like it will live up to all of that and more.
The new trailer for Dune: Part Three, dropped during a buzzy fan event live-streamed in IMAX theaters around the world, reveals more of the turbulent conclusion of Paul Atreides’ story. He’s “conquered the galaxy” and “destroyed thousands of worlds.” And because of the devastating actions of Paul and his armies, Hayt (Jason Momoa), the ghola clone of Paul’s former ally Duncan Idaho, thinks he’s “beyond redemption.” And judging by the dark, intense trailer, it looks like Paul won’t be earning that redemption any time soon. Watch the official Dune: Part Three trailer below.
Dune: Part Three picks up years after Paul defeated the Harkonnens and claimed the throne for himself, marrying Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) and beginning his bloody conquest of the galaxy. But in the process, he betrayed his Fremen lover Chani (Zendaya), who, in a departure from Frank Herbert’s books, parted ways with Paul and stayed on Arrakis instead.
The new official trailer for Dune: Part Three heavily alludes to this rift between Paul and Chani, showing what appears to be flashbacks to their arguments over his holy wars, as well as Chani’s ultimate abandonment of her blue Nezhoni scarf — the traditional scarf to signify a Fremen woman was romantically involved. We see a battle-worn Paul later wearing the scarf around his wrist in the trailer and in the new poster, which interestingly seems to pit Paul against Chani.
Spoilers ahead for Dune Messiah!
The new Dune: Part Three poster.
But the idea that Chani may become Paul’s opponent may be a bit of a misdirect. In Dune Messiah, which Dune: Part Three largely adapts, Chani is Paul’s loyal mistress and his wife in all but name, earning her the ire of Paul’s official wife, Irulan. Chani spends most of the novel pregnant and being slowly poisoned by Irulan (who has joined forces with Scytale and a handful of others in a conspiracy to violently depose Paul) and eventually dies giving birth to two children, Leto and Ghanima. But Dune: Part Three seems to radically change Chani’s part in Paul’s troubled reign: From the beginning, she no longer seems to be his closest ally, or even on his side in the plot against him. While she’s probably not actively trying to assassinate him, she does seem to be a part of Scytale’s (Robert Pattinson) scheme against Paul.
In the trailer, we see Hayt offer himself as a gift to Paul (a Trojan Horse in the book), which kicks off Scytale’s plot against him. Scytale actively schemes with Irulan — who seems more frightened of being accused of treason here — and seems to imply that Chani could be the key to their assassination plot. But remember, Scytale is a Face Dancer, aka a shapeshifter. In the book, Syctale murders and takes the identity of the Fremen woman Lichna to get closer to Paul, but in Dune: Part Three, it’s possible that Chani has been substituted in for Lichna. It also explains one eerily inhuman line reading from Zendaya’s Chani, who asks Paul, “How does it feel to be human? Like everyone else, Paul Atreides.” So it could also be likely that the poster shows Paul facing off against Scytale-posing-as-Chani.
It’s also possible that this trailer isn’t changing the book at all. In an early scene in the novel, when the Face Dancers are entertaining the royal court, some Face Dancers do take the form of Chani, sort of as a joke, and also to prove their unique abilities. So, the trailer could be cleverly cut to reproduce that scene and make us think that Scytale will pose as Chani for most of the movie. It’s worth noting that in the book, Scytale rarely appears as himself.
Still, this seems like an exciting departure from the book, and certainly gives Chani, or rather, Zendaya, more to do than in the book version of Dune Messiah — just as she became the surprising soul of Dune: Part Two. But it seems like it could just be one of many crucial changes that Villeneuve makes to his adaptation, which could set up Dune: Part Three to be an even darker and more epic story than Herbert put on the page.
