December 2026 is set to be an enormous month for geeks. In fact, two of the most anticipated movies of the year debut on the same day: Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three. Both movies are sci-fi epics, representing the culmination of years of build-up and anticipation.
Ahead of Dune: Part Three, Warner Bros. has debuted the first trailer for the upcoming blockbuster, which adapts Dune Messiah, the second book in Frank Herbert's Dune series. The movie takes a huge, 17-year time jump. Paul is now Padishah Emperor after his marriage to Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) — but he really loves Chani (Zendaya), his Fremen concubine. Check out the trailer below:
Following the trailer launch, Variety caught up with director Denis Villeneuve, who revealed that adapting Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah was a particularly big challenge. “It’s a very dark, beautiful book,” he said. "It’s a story about Paul and Chani and them struggling with their relationship, having the burden and incredible pressure from the world around them, and Paul is trying to find a way out of this cycle of violence. There’s something about their love, through time and the way they are, their relationship evolves.”
Tonally, the new instalment takes another unique angle. "If the first movie was more of a contemplation, like a boy exploring a new world, and the second one being a war movie, this one is more action-packed and tense,” he added.
For Villeneuve, the original plan was to take a short sabbatical from Arrakis to work on other projects before returning for the ultimate conclusion in Dune Part Three. It would've been a sensible move at that time, especially given the third movie takes an almost two-decade time jump. However, the breathtaking response to Dune: Part Two sped things up.
“We screened the movie in Mexico; there were 14,000 people outside the theater and 5,000 people inside," he recalled. "It was that rollercoaster around the world and seeing the excitement, and I felt an appetite for the third movie. I felt a responsibility to finish the story.”
It'll be an action packed final act, with the teaser showcasing battles fought on both land, sky, and space. What's more, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) faces a formidable new foe in his rebellion, coming in the form of Robert Pattinson's shapeshifting villain, Scytale.
Dune: Part Three, the final installment in the trilogy, releases in theaters on December 18. Which are you more excited to watch, Dune: Part Three or Avengers: Doomsday? Tell us in the comments below!