A new official trailer for Deni Villneuve’s highly anticipated adaptation of Dune has
just dropped online and with it a ton of never before seen footage and images.
There is a lot to unpack in this trailer so in this video I’d like to offer my thoughts
and overall impressions about what stood out to me the most.
Major spoiler warning as I will be discussing details regarding certain scenes and where
they might fit into the story of Dune.
The new trailer opens with Zendaya’s Chani a fremen warrior of Arrakis, she offers a
brief narration about her home planet and the oppression her people have suffered at
the hands of outsiders whose only concern is to plunder the precious spice.
Zendaya’s voice is enchanting yet strong and I appreciate how this part emphasizes
what the Fremen have endured prior to the arrival of House Atreides.
It also seems that this sequence could be a part of Paul’s dreamlike visions of the
future as we cut to the next scene of Paul waking from sleep.
These visions will be quite important to convey as it is a critical part in Paul and Chani’s
interactions since by the time they meet Paul already feels like he knows her.
Next we see Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho arriving on the Atreides homeworld of Caladan where
he and Paul have a conversation about the dreams he’s been having.
Duncan appears to undergo several different changes in his appearance throughout the footage
featured as we see him here with a long beard, later with a trimmed goatee, and another time
where is clean shaven.
This kind of gives us a time frame of where his scenes fit within the timeline of events.
In the first trailer that was released Duncan was featured heavily and the first time we
see him it appears that Paul and him are reuniting after an extended absence so it’s likely
that their conversation here takes place before Duncan embarks for Arrakis.
After Duke Leto accepts the Emperor’s command to take stewardship of Dune he sends Duncan
ahead as a sort of Ambassador to the local Fremen, to establish good relations with them
in the hopes of gaining their support.
In previous adaptations Duncan’s character and his role in the story have been greatly
diminished, however with all the footage that we’ve seen of him so far it appears this
adaptation will do better in highlighting his contributions to the story.
The next sequence of events is narrated by Oscar Isaac’s Duke Leto Atreides, it provides
a short and sweet summary of their noble House.
What stood out to me the most and what is probably one of the most striking visuals
that demonstrate the sheer scale of this universe is the procession that arrives on Caladan
with House Atreides to greet them.
I admit upon my first viewing of the trailer my brain actually failed to fully comprehend
the massive size of this ship.
At first glance I thought it was someone's personal transport vessel but then when I
watched it again more slowly it absolutely blew my mind.
This ship is positively massive as we can see in comparison to the people below it as
well as the surrounding scenery.
It’s important to note also that this vessel fits inside the hold of the massive globular
shaped Spacing Guild Heighliners that we see later in the trailer which further emphasizes
just how immense the Guild ships are.
In the book, Duke Leto notes to Paul that all of House Atreides’ vessels would fit
in a small corner of the ship so I really appreciate the immensity of the heighliners
as shown.
I’m thoroughly impressed by the visual effects team who succeeded in presenting these enormous
ships and I definitely am a fan of the designs I’ve seen so far.
What’s also notable in this sequence are what appear to be spacing Guild members that
are beginning their metamorphosis into becoming Navigators; this is indicated by an orange
Spice gas seen within their helmets.
I didn’t expect to see Guild Members at all in this first film though it makes sense
considering their monopoly on interstellar space travel, which is a critical part in
the infrastructure of the Empire.
Whether or not we’ll see the fully mutated Guild Navigators remains to be seen.
The next thing that really stood out to me is a still of Lady Jessica.
Again the visuals are very striking.
At first I wasn’t sure what color her eyes were but it looks to me as if she has the
Eyes of Ibad, the blue within blue eyes indicative of one’s blood being saturated with spice.
Spice saturation takes a while for newcomers to Arrakis to develop so this could be a vision
Paul has of the future or more likely this scene takes place right after she endures
the Spice Agony ritual as there is also what looks like a deep blue stain on her bottom
lip similar to the red lip stains depicted on the Mentats in this film who drink Sapho
juice to heighten their abilities.
Another scene that stands out is what appears to be somewhat of a hologram projection of
sorts.
Paul is standing in front of a display that looks something like a nervous system or perhaps
a visual representation of Paul’s prescience and the possible futures he sees as this is
in line with Dr. Yueh’s dialogue that the Duke’s son sees too much.
Either way, I love the mystery of it and look forward to seeing what exactly this is.
The twisted Mentat Piter De Vries is seen for the first time in official footage as
well.
He and the Baron are more of a side note in this trailer so it looks to me as if they’re
saving their scenes for the film, not wanting to reveal too much.
The Harkonnen incursion on Arrakis once again plays a major role in this trailer and from
what I have seen of the action, it looks fantastic.
Interestingly we also get a shot of Liet Kynes holding some maker hooks, these are tools
that the Fremen use in order to ride the mighty sandworms.
I’m very curious as to what part of the film this scene is set as Liet is not depicted
riding a sandworm in the book.
Having said that however there are several scenes here depicting events that while not
expressly described in the book are definitely a part of the story.
We also get a shot of Jameis, the Fremen warrior speaking the line, “come with me”.
I’m unsure who he is speaking to here as this is not a line that he says in the books.
In the book, Jameis dies fighting Paul after he challenges the young Atreides to a duel.
So suffice it to say I don’t think he’s speaking to Paul or Jessica here.
At the end of the trailer we see a massive CGI heavy action scene between the Fremen
and what appear to be Sardaukar in the open desert.
Paul is revealed with the blue eyes of ibad in gold plated armor.
A few key points in this scene lead me to believe that this is a vision.
As has been hinted by those involved with the film, this story will most likely leave
off at a two year time jump in the book.
After this time jump is when Paul is described with the blue within blue eyes of ibad.
Given that Paul’s visions are such a heavy part of this story I have to assume that this
action scene is yet another prescient vision of the future.
We also see a final shot of Paul and Chani again with the same spice saturated eyes leading
me to assume that these are all scenes that we will be shown in the final parts of the
film as a sort of preview of what lies ahead for the sequel.
This is all speculation of course and overall I feel this trailer is a feast for the eyes
and has appeal to both newbies and hardcore fans as there elements that are still a mystery
to those who are familiar with the source material and the trailer does a good job at
presenting the basics of this feudalistic Empire.
Ultimately this trailer did nicely at giving an overview of the Fremen and how they feel
towards outsiders, a look at the noble House Atreides and highlighting the evils of House
Harkonnen.
These are just a few details I noticed out of the massive amount of footage we got.
So I’m curious to know what you picked out of the trailer that you found particularly
interesting.
Do you agree with any of the theories I presented or are there other ideas about these scenes
that you have.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Dune and other sci fi and fantasy news and lore.
Thank you all so much for your support and as always have a very nerdy day.