The first trailer for Dune: Part 3 has just been released, and you can watch it below. The film is set to be the long-awaited conclusion to director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy based on Frank Herbert’s books of the same name.
You might be wondering why I’m starting this opinion piece as if I were reading a news autocue about a financial report, and that’s because I have the same level of enthusiasm for both.
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Surely it’s not just me who thinks the Dune: Part 3 trailer is the visual equivalent of a sigh
Let’s start with the Dune: Part 3 trailer marketing strategy. If you look on the movie’s official Instagram page, there have been 10 trailer adverts in the last 12 hours, and a further nine posts in the last 24 hours including all the different character posters. To me, this already feels like overkill, and it’s causing to me tune out.
The above clip stands out as particularly unnecessary. As part of the trailer launch, Warner Bros. got the core cast together to react to the trailer, but also to remind you, for the millionth time, that it’s now available to watch.
None of them look like they want to be there, and I can almost see the fear in their eyes for the impending press tour. And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to them being asked to do unnecessary marketing stuff.
But surely I’m just being a sour hater, right? Let’s dig into the trailer itself.
Watch On
After all of that delicious social set-up, we’ve got a full two minutes and 30 seconds of new footage to dissect. YouTube fans are already dubbing this as “premium treatment,” and the trailer’s one plus is that it functions as it should — tease what’s coming without fully giving anything away.
So what exactly is coming? Zendaya and Timmy have had a (fictional) baby, more people in armor are clobbering each other, and for the second time this year Rebecca Ferguson is looking ominous, with symbols scribbled all over her.
In essence, it looks exactly like the first two movies, and there’s not enough differentiation for it to feel fresh, exciting, or indeed needed. I know narratively that isn’t true (the movie series still has more of the original story to adapt), but there’s only so much evil-yet-wistful staring into the sci-fi distance one can take.
What the Dune: Part 3 trailer really heralds is the fact that we’re in for a near-constant bombardment of the franchise’s standoffish brand for the next nine months. It’s an entire pregnancy that will end with the birth of Villeneuve’s beautiful bore, which I can guarantee will have its flaws, no matter how hard the internet will try to convince you it’s perfect.
Is Timothée Chalamet still a Paul Atreides-level Lisan al-Ghaib after that pre-Oscars controversy? Does Anya Taylor-Joy still have to do voiceovers from the womb? And will the 2026 marketing campaign have the opposite effect to what’s intended and leave viewers disappointed? All of these questions I cannot answer, but nor do I care.
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