The first teaser for Dune: Part Three just dropped—as did a ton of character posters—and we’re pretty stoked. We’re also a bit confused about who and what we’re looking at. At least, we would be if we haven’t read the book upon which Denis Villeneuve and company based the movie. That’s Frank Herbert’s 1969 novel, Dune Messiah, the follow-up to his massive, genre-redefining Dune. Villeneuve has always said Messiah is his favorite, but it is very different from the previous novel, which encompasses the first two movies.
If you want a bit if a primer on what to expect in Dune: Part Three, based on what we see in the teaser, our own Kwisatz Haderach, Matt Caron, has you covered in the video below.
The story picks up at a crucial time during his reign, as pressure mounts for Paul to sire an heir. At the same time, a conspiracy forms against him. Muad’Dib also wrestles with his powerful abilities, as he tries to avoid the tragic future his prescient sight has revealed.
The first, and biggest, part of the trailer is what seems to be a flashback scene with Paul and Chani from their time together in Dune: Part Two. The two discuss what they would name their child. And here, Chani wears her blue nezhoni scarf that we saw her wear in Dune: Part Two. Fremen women would wear these scarves if they had given birth to a son, or if they were romantically involved with a partner. And the fact that Chani wears this here while she and Paul speak of a potential child, lends credence to the fan theory that Chani was actually pregnant in Part Two.
If Paul and Chani have a girl, Paul wants to name her Ghanima, the Fremen word for a “spoil of war.” In the Dune book, Paul received a ghanima when he defeated Jamis, a prize that came with a great cost. So we’ll just have to wait and see what great cost Paul and Chani must pay if they have a daughter.
If Paul and Chani have a son, Chani suggests they name him Leto after Paul’s father. In the Dune book, Paul and Chani originally have a son during Paul’s war against the Harkonnens, but the child is killed by the Emperor’s Sardaukar.
But at the end of this conversation, we see who has been washing in the water basin. It is Bald Atreides, now with a shaved head and alone, years after this calm moment with his Sihaaya. How much time has passed is hard to exactly guess, as the trailer shows multiple battles from Paul’s campaign to consolidate power. Some of these battles could be flashbacks as well, or this adaptation of Dune Messiah could take place amidst Paul’s ongoing galactic war.
These horrendous and destructive scenes potentially show us battles that are merely mentioned in Dune Messiah: battles like Sembou, Molitor, and possibly Naraj where its army set off a dangerous Stone Burner.– That’s important for later. And the brutality and devastation of these wars show how fearless of a fighting force the Fremen truly are. Stilgar, Paul Muad’Dib’s devoted commander, is seen leading the charge against one planet that refused to bend the knee to his Emperor.
But joining Paul is his younger sister, Alia Atreides! Our favorite toddler with a knife is all grown up since we first encountered her in Dune: Part Two when she was still in Jessica’s womb Here in this trailer, we see Alia is the same age as in Paul’s previous vision, which leads us to believe that the time jump between Parts Two and Three is longer than the twelve years from the book. According to Villeneuve, it’s more like 17.
Alia is another powerful result of Bene Gesserit breeding and has many of the same physical and prescient abilities as her brother. Unfortunately for Alia, when Jessica drank the Water of Life in Dune: Part Two, Alia was immediately awoken into consciousness and flooded with the same thousands of ancient memories as Jessica. Hopefully, that won’t be an issue for her, but that will be for your Children of Dune to find out.
Alia is devoted to her brother’s cause and helps perpetuate the religion of Muad’Dib. She even leads his empire in his absence as we can see in this shot of the throne room. She joins him in prayer before battle, blessing his Fedaykin warriors before they run into the fray. Someone with prayer beads on their wrist hands over Paul’s Ducal Signet to someone in a stillsuit. Could this be Paul or a priest handing Alia the Atreides ring for safekeeping?
We also see what is probably my favorite shot in the entire trailer: Alia standing atop the balcony of her temple, delivering rites to the countless pilgrims who have travelled to Arrakis to worship Muad’Dib. Her knowledge of the Bene Gesserit’s ways allows her to weaponize the power of religion to strengthen Paul’s hold on power.
But Dune Messiah’s story doesn’t only follow the rise of the Atreides Empire. Many factions of the old Imperium want to bring an end to Paul’s tyrannical reign. And so a conspiracy emerges from an alliance between the Bene Gesserit, the scheming Tleilaxu, and the powerful and mysterious Spacing Guild!
In Dune: Part One, we briefly saw a few members of the Spacing Guild and learned about their monopoly on space travel and their dependence on the spice melange. But NOW, we finally get our first look– well look-ish– at a full Spacing Guild Navigator! In this brief shot, we see a threatening, floating sarcophagus with the Navigator named Edric enclosed inside.
Guild Navigators are human beings, who have become extremely mutated and fish-like due to ingesting and breathing heavy doses of spice gas. Their use of spice allows them limited prescience, which they can use to foresee safe pathways among the stars to steer their gigantic Heighliner ships.
But in front of Edric, we also get our first look at Robert Pattinson, as Scytale the Tleilaxu Face Dancer! The Tleilaxu are a new antagonist we meet in Dune Messiah. They are a secretive race of humans who specialize in bioengineering and are reviled by the rest of the Imperium due to their unethical practices.
Their abhorrent creations include shapeshifting humanoids called Face Dancers, born out of the Tleilaxu’s mysterious Axlotl Tanks. In the books, Face Dancers were created as forms of entertainment, but their ability to mimic the looks, sounds, and personas of others made them optimal tools for espionage and assassination. But here, Scytale is not just a useful master of disguise for this conspiracy plot, he is also an agent with an ulterior motive for the Tleilaxu.
In the trailer, we see the members of this conspiracy convene on a massive Spacing Guild ship. Leading this meeting is Irulan, whom we met in Dune: Part Two. At the end of that movie, Paul takes her as his wife in name only so that he can assume the throne, and she hasn’t been too happy about that.
In the book, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam leads this conspiracy, but we don’t see her here in the trailer. Charlotte Rampling is credited at the end of the trailer, so she may still appear in this scene, or could be limited to a flashback.
This plot against Paul takes on a multi-pronged approach in the book. Irulan and the Bene Gesserit interfere with Paul and Chani’s attempts to have a child. If Irulan can mother Paul’s heir, then the Bene Gesserit could once again harness the genes of their Kwisatz Haderach. If Paul were to have a child with Chani, her Fremen genetics would forever alter the Bene Gesserit’s long-formulated breeding program.
Edric of the Spacing Guild acts as a cloak to hide the actions of this conspiracy from Paul’s prescience. Because of a Guild Navigator’s limited prescience, they too can alter the outcome of the near future, muddling the visions of any other prescient being. Paul cannot directly see their actions in any of his predictions, but he can notice the absence of their actions in their possible futures.
And lastly, Scytale and the Tleilaxu provide the final piece of the conspirators’ plan. Along with creating Face Dancers, the Tleilaxu are also infamous for creating Gholas. Gholas are not zombies or clones, but instead they are reanimated beings grown from dead flesh. They have no memory of their past lives and the Tleilaxu can even genetically implant new skills and traits into these husks of former human beings.
The conspirators aim to present Paul with a gift, a gift he certainly cannot refuse. The Tleilaxu had made a Ghola of none other than Paul’s best friend and mentor, Duncan Idaho! That’s right folks, Duncan is back!
In Dune: Part One, Duncan saved Paul by defeating an unheard of NINETEEN Sardaukar before falling in glorious battle. It’s a Ghola of Duncan who now goes by the name of Hayt! In the years since his death, the Tleilaxu acquired Duncan’s body and regrew it. And, in addition to his skills as a Swordmaster, the Tleilaxu also augmented Duncan’s mind so that he could function as a Mentat, a human who can function like a computer.
And here, we can see Scytale and Edric entering the palace of Muad’Dib to present Hayt as a gift to Paul. The conspirators aim for Hayt to confuse and muddle Paul’s ability to rule. Many of the Fremen despise the Tleilaxu and see Paul’s acceptance of this Tleilaxu creation as a betrayal. But Paul misses his best friend and understands that Hayt is meant to be used as a weapon against him, so he will keep him close.
And so all of this sets the stage for tumultuous unrest in Paul’s empire. Paul’s grip on power is pushed to its limits as he comes to understand the problems of the institutions that form around charismatic leaders like himself. He is surrounded by enemies on all sides, even from among the Fremen.
In what appears to be another scene directly out of the book, Paul, his elite guard, and possibly even Alia, scour the city of Arrakeen at night to quell an insurgent faction of Fremen. But Paul and his loyal fighters find more than they bargain for with what we can only assume is a Stone Burner.
Stone Burners are devastating weapons in the Dune universe. The Dune Imperium has a hard stance on the use of atomic weaponry, and anyone who uses atomics against another human or planet is sentenced to ultimate destruction. Paul used a loophole in Dune: Part Two where he used the Atreides family atomics against the shield wall itself, not the Emperor’s Sardaukar army. Clear difference.
In Dune Messiah, Lady Jessica is on a long vacation with Gurney back on Caladan and never appears in the story. But it looks like we’ll get a surprise appearance of Paul’s Reverend Mother mother in what looks like a flashback with Paul on his home planet. Paul has long hair and wears his Atreides uniform. But his eyes are blue from the Water of Life and Jessica is a Reverend Mother from the end of Part Two, so this scene must take place soon after Paul’s rise to power.
Here, the trailer returns its focus to Duke Leto’s legacy. This Dune trilogy stresses the importance of the relationship between father and son. It seems that in Dune: Part Three, Paul still struggles to lead in a way that would honor his father. Paul’s empire and the power of his Fremen armies have gone beyond his control, trapping Paul and the rest of humanity into a dangerous path into the future.
But this trailer ends with an interesting scene that seems to differ from Dune Messiah and builds off of Chani’s expanded role in the film adaptations of the first book. At the end of Dune: Part Two, Chani left Paul and ran away into the desert. In this trailer, we finally catch up with Chani out in the desert again, more battle-scarred and desert-worn than when we last saw her.
Chani seems to be squaring off against two other Fremen. So could she be fighting the rebellious plot against Paul? What’s interesting, however, is that it looks like they are all standing on the back of a sandworm. The Dune Messiah novel briefly mentions some conspirators attempting to smuggle a sandworm off of Arrakis, in the hopes of starting their own spice trade. So, we avid readers might get to see this fully played out in a massive action scene.
Dune: Part Three hits theaters December 18, 2026.
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