Dune: Part Three Trailer Reveals A Heavier Focus On A Plot Point The Books Skipped

The first trailer for "Dune: Part Three" is here, and reveals a new look for Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet). The trailer is filled with plenty of familiar faces and promises to deliver hefty drama surrounding the House of Atreides. That is to be expected, based on the melodramatic, dialogue-heavy approach of Frank Herbert's "Dune: Messiah," which the new movie adapts. One thing that isn't in that book much, though? Action. 

Sure, there are minor action-heavy moments in the book. There are some intense religious scenes with Paul's sister, Alia (Anya Taylor-Joy), and a handful of the plots, scrapes, and duels that Frank Herbert's world is known for. But one thing that isn't there is the all-out war that defines the end of the story's first part. 

After the intense battles and action sequences of "Dune: Part Two," itself differing from the first movie in a major way, one of the biggest obstacles in adapting the next part of the story was keeping audiences' interest with so much less over-the-top spectacle. Based on the trailer, it looks like director Denis Villeneuve and his writing team have found a simple and elegant way to have the third installment live up to its predecessors. Based on what we're seeing so far, it looks like they're going to fill in a part of the story Herbert skipped over completely in the book: a 12-year war of religious conquest known as the Holy War.

By the time the book "Dune: Messiah" starts, Paul has already embarked on an intergalactic war of conquest. His Fremen legions have conquered vast swaths of the stars, and he is ruling as the Padishah Emperor over a massive empire, one that was forged in blood. The story goes on from there, occasionally referencing those past atrocities, but not actually walking the reader through any of the past in detail.

In contrast, the new trailer for "Dune: Part Three" suggests it's going to bridge the gap from "Dune: Part Two's" ending to that future point in "Messiah." If that happens, we'll get plenty of scenes of conquest from the Holy War that brings Paul Atreides to power. Already, in the trailer, we have a smorgasbord of graphic battlefield detail as Fremen fighters are depicted not on one battlefield, but several. We see different cultures, planets, armies, and technologies.

The takeaway is that we're probably in for a much more graphic and detailed cinematic depiction of that part of the story. This could set up the events of "Dune: Messiah," helping audiences understand the full weight of Paul's past and why the last chapter of his story is defined by his grappling with the horrors he's unleashed.