July 22, 2021

Watch the latest Dune trailer starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet’s hair

Trailer of the Week: the first in a sporadically scheduled series dissecting the 150-second mini-blockbusters that we call “trailers”.

What is it?

“Dune – Official Main Trailer”. Not to be confused with “Dune Official Trailer” from September 2020, released ahead of the last-but-one (last-but-two?) scheduled release date for the long-delayed sci-fi blockbuster. Or with “Dune Official NEW Trailer 2”, from April 2021. This film has been coming over the dunes for a long time.

Starwatch: who’s in it?

Everyone! Timothée, Zendaya, Momoa, Bautista, Brolin (Josh not James), Bardem, Ferguson (Rebecca), Isaac (Oscar). And one of the Skarsgårds (possibly the dad?).

Starwatch: what planet are we on?

Arrakis. Sand-blown home of Zendaya’s troubled local. Apparently it’s “so beautiful when the sun is low. Rolling over the sands, you can see spice in the air.” Spice, to be clear, is not the “zombie drug” that was gripping British streets a couple of years ago. It’s far deadlier. Deadly enough to cause invading “outsiders” to “ravage our lands in front of our eyes. What’s to become of our world?”

Good question – what is to become of her world?

Well, we don’t know yet. But Timothée is Paul Atreides of House Atreides (which is, rather disappointingly, not a New York voguing family but some sort of interplanetary landlord). Paul is a winsome prince who’s not nearly as tough as his space-jet flying brother Duncan, played by Jason “Aquaman” Momoa. But by the trailer’s end, Paul has aquamanned up (of course he has) and is down there on the dunes, fighting to save Arrakis and set up a meet-cute with Zendaya’s Chani. Probably.

What planet are you on?

You’re not going to see Dune in cinemas because you remember something about the sourcebook being really dense; because sci-fi is boring; because you heard something about Sting in a codpiece from the original film adaptation by David Lynch; because people say that the 1984 Dune was Really Rubbish; because director Denis Villeneuve’s previous sci-fi reboot Blade Runner 2049 was a Bit Rubbish; because even this trailer is confusing, and because Covid? Are you mad! Dune is the first no-brainer, big-screen reason to go back into a cinema since The Before Times.