- Primary Subject: Dune: Part Three
- Key Update: The official teaser trailer reveals a five-year time jump and the return of Duncan Idaho as a manufactured ghola named Hayt.
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: March 18, 2026
- Quick Answer: Dune 3 follows Emperor Paul Atreides, facing a conspiracy to dethrone him involving Princess Irulan and a shapeshifting Face Dancer villain played by Robert Pattinson.
Warner Bros. and Legendary have finally released the much-awaited official teaser trailer for Dune: Part Three.
The over-two-minute trailer showcases the rising conflict and epic stakes in the vast desert world of Arrakis, set against mounting political tension and looming battles.
Featuring glimpses of both new and returning characters and a story said to differ from its predecessors, here’s a breakdown of the Dune 3 trailer.
Paul Atreides
Seventeen years after the events of Dune: Part Two, Dune: Part Three will see Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as the new emperor. However, compared to the book that serves as its source material, Dune Messiah, the story is actually set five years earlier.
As explained by director Denis Villeneuve, there will be major changes on Arrakis during those intervening years.
“The world changed in those years. The climate is different. Arrakis is still the desert planet, but there are differences,” he said at the trailer launch (via IGN). “We are visiting new sets, new places. I brought the camera to areas of the planet that you guys have not seen before, and we are visiting new planets as well.”
Here, Paul is already a world-conquering tyrant, the messiah of the Fremen, but he is also responsible for the beginning of the interstellar jihad.
In the novels by Frank Herbert, the story explores how Paul ultimately leads people into war. Villeneuve, however, wanted to show how Paul deals with the consequences of wielding too much power and how he tries to break free from the cycle of violence.
“And, of course, he can see the future, so he’s kind of invincible. We follow people trying to overthrow him,” he added.
The Groups Wanting Paul Dethroned
Now that Paul has become emperor, several factions want to see him dethroned, including the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, the Bene Tleilax, and even his own wife, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh).
For starters, Irulan is the daughter of Shaddam IV, whom Paul married for political reasons. In the novel Dune Messiah, the two have no children, while Paul keeps Chani as his concubine.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Paul and Chani will reunite in Dune: Part Three, after she left him following his marriage to the princess and his rise to the imperial throne.
The trailer even shows Chani seemingly preparing to go to battle against Paul, though it may simply be clever misdirection.
Paul and Chani’s Kids
Paul and Chani have children in the books, twins named Leto II and Ghanima, the same names mentioned in the trailer.
However, it has not yet been revealed whether they will actually have children in the film, despite the trailer hinting at those names.
That said, there have been rumors that the twins will appear in the movie and will reportedly be played by Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke, respectively.
If they do appear, it would mark a big change from the novel Dune Messiah, where the twins only appear as infants rather than as older children.
However, it’s also possible that their appearances will simply serve as a framing device, with the story of what happened to their parents being told to them. Alternatively, Paul may have seen them in a spice vision.
Alia
Alia (Anya Taylor-Joy) is back in Dune: Part Three, and she appears to be a staunch ally of her brother, Paul.
Compared to the books, Alia looks older in the film, and the Fremen of Arrakis worship her as “St. Alia of the Knife” as she tries to stop the conspiracy against Paul.
“Alia has a very intense blessing/curse situation. She carries the weight and the wisdom of generations and generations in her head. She's never in a singular conversation. It's kind of everything everywhere all at once,” Taylor-Joy explained during the trailer event.
“And the one thing that she really feels most strongly about is her love and devotion to her brother, because that is the only person who's ever made her feel like she makes sense. He's understood her from before she was even born and she will do anything for him to various degrees of insanity.”
Duncan Idaho Returns as Hayt the Ghola
Fans are about to see a very different Jason Momoa in Dune: Part Three, as his character returns not as Duncan Idaho but as Hayt the ghola.
In Dune Messiah, Alia Atreides becomes romantically involved with Duncan, whom the Bene Tleilax resurrect to use against Paul.
The group creates a ghola of Duncan, a manufactured genetic replicant of a dead human, and presents him to Paul, now called Hayt.
However, Hayt has no memories of Duncan’s past and actually serves as a weapon of Paul’s enemies, meant to manipulate him psychologically and ultimately assassinate him.
“He comes back just at the right moment in the story. And it's like a very, very important comeback,” Villenueve said about Duncan’s return. “Paul is struggling with his identity and I think that kind of strong Atreides figure coming back from the past will have a tremendous impact. That's what I will say.”
The New Villain Scytale
Dune: Part Three introduces a new villain, Scytale (played by Robert Pattinson), a Face Dancer who can shapeshift into anyone and plays a major role in the conspiracy to overthrow and kill Paul.
As a Face Dancer, Scytale is genetically programmed to remain loyal to the Bene Tleilax and is often used to eliminate or replace anyone who stands in the way of the Tleilaxu’s agenda.
However, Pattinson has teased that his character may not be the typical villain viewers expect to see in films.
“He's an unusual character in the book. I mean, you can't really tell whose side he's on [which is what] makes him quite interesting,” he said during the trailer launch. “I wouldn't say he's a kind of conventional bad guy as such. I don't think he is. He might even be a good guy. Who knows? I will also find out when I see the movie. But yeah, it's an extremely fun character to play and the look for it is quite extraordinary.”
Stilgar
Javier Bardem returns to reprise his role as Paul’s Fremen mentor, Stilgar, in Dune: Part Three.
Stilgar appears repeatedly in the teaser trailer, continuing to help prosecute Paul’s jihad.
Speaking about his role, Bardem said Paul is about to experience “different realities” this time and will confront “what being in power means after so long.”
“And he's in this contradiction between the loyalty to the idea that he strongly fought [for] and believed back in the day, and also the result of the idea becoming something that he thinks or feels that it may not be a thought that one day he dreamed about,” he continued.
Lady Jessica
Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) will have a smaller role in Dune: Part Three compared to the first two movies.
However, fans will see Jessica reminding her son that his father, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), “never started a war.”
By the looks of it, Duke Leto’s presence will still be strongly felt in the final movie, especially when Paul cleans his father’s ring in the trailer.
This ring will later be passed down to his son, Leto II, who becomes the lead character in Frank Herbert’s subsequent novels, Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune.
Dune: Part Three is scheduled to premiere on December 18.
Keep it locked on Epicstream, your go-to source for film, TV, and celebrity news!