‘Dune: Part Two’ trailer teases more Zendaya — finally — and a bald Austin Butler
What are you dune on Nov. 3?
If the answer is seeing “Dune: Part Two” in theaters, then boy do we have a trailer for you.
Warner Bros. on Wednesday released the first official preview for the highly anticipated follow-up to Denis Villeneuve‘s “Dune,” starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. And it appears Villeneuve has made good on his promise to elevate Zendaya’s character, Chani, to co-protagonist status after fans complained about her minimal screen time in the first movie when she featured so prominently in advertisements and practically carried the worldwide press tour.
The trailer opens with Zendaya’s Chani and Chalamet’s Paul Atreides sharing an intimate moment while overlooking the desert planet Arrakis.
“When you see sand here, imagine water,” Paul says. “If you dive in, you can’t reach the bottom.”
“You dive in?” Chani repeats. “I don’t believe you.”
Zendaya promises that she will have a bigger role in “Dune: Part Two” after the first film disappointed fans with her minimal screen time.
Also spotlighted in the trailer are franchise newcomers Austin Butler as the villainous Feyd-Rautha and Florence Pugh as the enigmatic Princess Irulan. Rounding out the main cast are Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling and Javier Bardem.
“In the shadows of Arrakis lie many secrets,” Pugh’s Irulan says in the trailer. “But the darkest of them all may remain the end of House Atreides.”
Leading up to the trailer reveal, the internet was already buzzing about Butler’s hairless, eyebrow-less appearance in the film — a far cry from his slicked-back Elvis ’do. Bald Butler is shown only briefly in the preview, mainly in battle sequences.
Released in October 2021, the flagship “Dune” movie adapted two-thirds of Frank Herbert‘s classic sci-fi novel of the same name. The second film will cover the final third and see a deeper bond develop between Chalamet’s Paul and Zendaya’s Chani as they unite against a common enemy: the Harkonnens.
“You will never lose me, Paul Atreides,” Chani whispers during a romantic scene toward the end of the trailer.
In addition to performing well at the pandemic box office, “Dune” cleaned up at the 2022 Academy Awards — collecting 10 nominations and six wins for sound, original score, film editing, production design, visual effects and cinematography.
The forthcoming feature is “much more dense” than its predecessor, Villeneuve said at CinemaCon last month.
“We went to all new locations. I didn’t want a feeling of repetition. It’s all new sets. Everything is new.”
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