A crowned head is heavy.
Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides may be firmly established as Emperor Padishaa, but ruling the galaxy comes at a steep price, as revealed in thrilling new footage from Dune: Part 3, released by Warner Bros. and Legendary at CinemaCon on Tuesday. Especially when that means he can’t ride off into the sunset with the woman he actually loves, Chani (Zendaya), and instead has to be trapped in a politically inevitable marriage to Florence Pugh’s Princess Irulan. Oh, your supporters have started a jihad in your name, resulting in the body count rising to dizzying heights.
Director Denis Villeneuve and the cast of Chalamet, Zendaya and Jason Momoa took to the stage in Las Vegas to introduce a seven-minute clip of the opening scene of Dune: Part III. And things are violent, loud, deadly, and fast.
Dune Part 3 takes place 17 years after the previous film, and Chalamet said Paul became “his worst vision.” At one point in the video, Momoa’s character tells Paul, “You’ve conquered the galaxy. You’ve destroyed thousands of worlds. I think you’re beyond redemption.”
Even though Paul’s life has become more complicated and his control over the Fremen more toxic, Dune Part 3 promises the same grandeur as the first two films in the series. Clearly, Villeneuve knows how to transform a famously difficult literary work into something truly cinematic and comprehensive.
Dune: Part 3 will see the return of many cast members from the first film, including Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem, with some actors, especially Anya Taylor-Joy, being given more roles. There are also new additions, including Robert Pattinson as the villainous Scytale, and one of the notable returnees, Momoa, who returns as Gola.
Warner Bros. went all out with Dune to close out its CinemaCon presentation. Before Villeneuve took the stage to introduce footage from “Dune 3,” the studio brought out dozens of Fremen, some hanging from the ceiling by wires, to decorate the stage.
Villeneuve teased that “Part III” would take the story in a new direction. “I didn’t want to follow in my footsteps,” he says. “I wanted to do something new,” said the filmmaker, who described the first film as “more contemplative and meditative” and the second as a “war movie.” With that in mind, Villeneuve says his third film is a thriller. “It’s more action-packed, faster-paced and more emotional.”
Villeneuve spoke fondly of the conclusion of his 10-year journey to bring the Dune series to the big screen. “It was very emotional for me to bring them back in front of the camera one last time and say goodbye to Paul and Chani in the desert. We became like a little family. This was 10 years of our lives.”
Chalamet said he “grew” on the set of these films, saying, “Working with Denis Villeneuve on this film is a profound honor, if not the greatest honor of my career,” adding that the director is “on another level.”
Villeneuve, who will soon be working on the next James Bond movie, promised that Dune: Part 3 will provide a satisfying conclusion to Paul’s arc. That doesn’t necessarily mean giving him a happy ending.
Dune: Part 3 will be released in theaters on December 18, 2026.
