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Timothée Chalamet excitedly referenced Peter Jackson’s towering Lord of the Rings films as he unveiled the new Dune: Part Three trailer, teasing a ‘very different’ final movie in director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy.
The 30-year-old reprises his lead role as Paul Atreides, 17 years after the events of the second film, as we see the consequences of his rise to power as the galactic emperor.
Speaking at a Q&A IMAX fan event attended by Metro, which was live streamed from Los Angeles across a number of cinemas around the world, Chalamet said he was ‘very grateful’ to the filmmaker for making the third instalment so soon.
Dune: Part Two was released in 2024, with Villeneuve originally planning to return for the last film ‘in a few years from now’.
‘I’m very grateful to this man, he could have taken years between these projects and instead he buckled in and we got it done right away,’ the actor shared. ‘I’m a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and I’m trying to imagine the last time someone knocked out three things so consecutively.’
The final LOTR film, The Return of the King, famously won eleven Oscars, while Dune and Dune: Part Two were awarded six and two, respectively.
‘In Denis we trust!’ Chalamet then quipped, a sentiment echoed by the first reactions to the trailer.
Canadian director Villeneuve, 58, explained of his change of heart: ‘We did both movies back-to-back and I was quite tired and said to everybody, “Listen, I’m taking a break”.’
He then revealed that he kept ‘waking up in the night with images and these images started to get stronger and stronger’.
‘I felt an appetite and a joy and a desire to finish that story and I felt a near responsibility.
‘I was planning to do part three in a few years from now, but I said would it be a better idea instead of going back there on Arrakis by nostalgia, to go by necessity and honour these images that are coming to my mind right now?
‘I wrote the movie right away and here we are. I’m really excited.’
Chalamet said that his role, which he first played in 2021’s Dune, was the most ‘emotive’ for him on a personal level – and described feeling nostalgic while filming the final movie.
‘I felt there was a finality in the exercise that I was kind of nostalgic about, even the moment, even though I was 29 when we shot this, it still felt like I was losing a part of me by getting through it,’ he added.
The upcoming film is based on Dune Messiah, the second novel in Frank Herbert’s 1960s series.
In the new action-packed trailer, which debuted at the event alongside an exclusive look at the new film’s opening 10 minutes, Paul appears corrupted by his power.
‘Forgive me for all I have done,’ he can be heard saying before Robert Pattinson’s character, shapeshifter Scytale, shares his regicide plot – calling it a ‘regime change’ – with Paul’s wife Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), the daughter of the overthrown Emperor IV (Christopher Walken).
‘I found someone,’ Scytale then adds, before the trailer cuts to Paul’s abandoned former lover, Chani (Zendaya).
‘This might be the best trailer I’ve ever seen for anything ever… Is this about to become my new favorite trilogy?’ wondered fan Runkus on YouTube, while another predicted there was ‘a masterpiece incoming’.
‘This is cinematic gold. It looks so freaking good,’ added The Movie Optimist as another viewer admitted they were ‘tearing up this is so good’.
Chalamet was also asked about his character’s villain arc and responded: ‘I hope it’s more nuanced than that. I think it’s one of the great things in Frank Herbet’s book, I think I read somewhere it’s why he wrote Messiah as a follow-up to the first book, is that people mistook Paul as a classic hero.
‘He sort of wanted to warn the word what can happen when people blindly follow leaders, and that even the good can be corrupted.’
Describing how Dune: Part Three differs from the two previous films, he said: ‘I think the first two are sort of siblings, and then this one is really its own energy, and I love that approach.’
The Marty Supreme actor explained there was ‘a new tone to this’, with Villeneuve echoing his comments.
‘I said to my crew, I don’t want to walk in our footsteps [sic.]. I want us to bring the audience to a new part of Arrakis, something that’s fresh and new.
‘And it’s also – for people who know the book – it’s a very different beast. It’s more of a thriller, it’s a more intense story and it’s definitely more emotional as well.
‘It will be the third and last Dune movie. It’s a Dune movie but it is a very different rhythm.’
Dune: Part Three sees a number of actors reprise their roles including Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Javier Bardem as Stilgar and Jason Momoa return as Hayt, a resurrection of his character Duncan Idaho who died in the first film.
Anya Taylor Joy also appears as Paul’s sister Alia, after her cameo in his vision in the previous movie.
Chalamet praised Joy’s performance in the final film for being ‘unbelievable’.
‘Just visually, it was breathtaking. She’s unbelievable in this movie. That’s not media hyperbole. She’s actually terrifying and amazing.’
Dune: Part Three releases in cinemas on December 18.