What to Expect From DUNE: PART THREE

Published: March 19, 2026

By Gavin Boyle

First-look photos and the trailer for DUNE: PART THREE reveal that the third movie in the series will tell a tell a story different from its predecessors.

“It’s important that people understand that, for me, it was really a diptych. It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity,” director Dennis Villeneuve told Vanity Fair in September 2024.

“Like [Frank] Herbert did with Dune: Messiah, I think it’ll be a great idea to do something completely different,” he later added about the third movie. “The story takes place like 12 years after where we left the characters at the end of PART TWO. Their journey, their story is different this time, and that’s why I always say that while it’s the same world it’s a new film with new circumstances.”

The first-look photos of the third movie confirm this approach as the characters have a different feel to them. Timothée Chalamet’s character Paul Atreides, for example, has wrinkles and major scarring around his eyes, a look absent from the first two movies. Meanwhile the first trailer shows him as a character tortured by his past.

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DUNE: PART THREE is set to hit theaters this December. While that seems like a long wait for fans, they should be thankful they are receiving the movie any time soon as Villeneuve originally planned to step away from the franchise for a few years after the completion of the second movie.

“I think my biggest surprise about this is that I don’t want to run away from Arrakis. I’m still inspired to go back,” Villeneuve told The Wrap. “That’s the thing that I was the most surprised by. I felt that after PART TWO, I would need a break.”

“I thought that I would want to go write a few films or do a couple of things before going back to Dune: Messiah. But the images that kept coming back to my mind, the appetite is absolutely intact,” he explained.

Fans will have to wait until the third movie is in theaters before they can understand just how different it is from the previous two. However, hopefully it will remain true to its moral grounding of good fighting against evil. This emphasis on morals earned the first two installments Movieguide® Award nominations. DUNE: PART THREE will premiere in theaters on Dec. 18, 2026.

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