Timothée Chalamet Rides a Sandworm in the Spectacular First 'Dune: Part Two' Trailer

There will be spice in 2023's sandiest movie, the eagerly anticipated sequel to 2021's Dune. With a war a-brewing on the planet Arrakis, seeing Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet, Bones and All) and the Fremen face off against the folks who destroyed his family, there will be blood as well. And, in the centrepiece to Dune: Part Two's glorious first trailer ahead of its November release in cinemas, there will be sandworms and wormriding — including the internet's boyfriend going for a cruise on one of the sci-fi franchise's mammoth creatures.

When its predecessor hit the big screen, it was after a year-long delay due to the pandemic, and as a second movie adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel. Following in David Lynch's footsteps might seem a foolish move, even when it's making a new version of one of the most unfairly maligned sci-fi films ever crafted, but Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) managed what Alejandro Jodorowsky sadly couldn't (see: excellent documentary Jodorowsky's Dune), and a new science-fiction cinema classic arrived.

Villeneuve's picture only told part of Dune's story, though, which is where Dune: Part Two comes in. The first film had Paul head to Arrakis because his dad Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac, Moon Knight) had just been given stewardship of the sandy celestial body and its abundance of 'the spice' — aka the most valuable substance in the universe — and then get caught up in a bitter battle with malicious forces over the substance. It also saw Paul meet the population of people known as the Fremen, including Zendaya's (Euphoria) Chani and Javier Bardem's (Lyle, Lyle Crocodile) Stilgar, which is who he and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson, Doctor Sleep) are with when the new flick's trailer begins.

Amid that expansive desert landscape, those hulking sandworms, Villeneuve's reliable eye for a spectacle and Hans Zimmer's (The Son) latest likely Oscar-winning score, Paul, Chani, Stilgar and company have vengeance to seek — but Paul also has to choose between love and preventing a dark future. And, he has new players to face, with Austin Butler ditching his Elvis locks as Feyd Rautha Harkonnen, the nephew of Stellan Skarsgard's (Andor) Baron Harkonnen, plus Florence Pugh (The Wonder) joining the saga as Princess Irulen, daughter of Christopher Walken's (Severance) Emperor Shaddam IV.

From the first film, which scored ten Oscar nominations and six wins, Josh Brolin (Outer Range), Dave Bautista (Knock at the Cabin), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Beau Is Afraid) and Charlotte Rampling (Benedetta) return, while Léa Seydoux (Crimes of the Future) also joins the cast.

Off-screen, Villeneuve has brought back not just Zimmer, but Oscar-winning Australian director of photography Greig Fraser (The Batman), Oscar-winning production designer Patrice Vermett (Vice), Oscar-winning editor Joe Walker (The Unforgivable), Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert (First Man)  and Oscar-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West (Song to Song).

Check out the first Dune: Part Two trailer below:

Dune will release in cinemas Down Under on November 2, 2023.