Finally, The First Trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Is Here

Lord, does it feel like we’ve been waiting eons to write the following sentence: The first trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune has landed online. And what a trailer, folks—almost three minutes of the first Dune footage we’ve ever seen, which will no doubt have geeks scouring over its contents for analysis for weeks. The hype engine will definitely be roaring to life on everything Dune related, currently scheduled for a Dec. 18, 2020 release. Even if we don’t set foot in a single movie theater before December, it’s going to be very hard to let this one go by in theaters without finding a way to see it.

The first trailer introduces us to Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, the scion of a powerful aristocratic family in the distant future, in an age of interstellar travel. The Atreides clan is packing up shop and moving from their verdant homeworld to the strategically important world of Arrakis/Dune, which is the only known source in the universe for the priceless “spice” known as Melange, a substance that makes interstellar travel possible. This is nominally an important promotion for Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), but the move is in fact a complex trap set by the Atreides’ family ancestral foes, House Harkonnen. What unfolds is a Machiavellian power struggle for the future of Arrakis and the rest of the galaxy, even as Paul begins to manifest seemingly supernatural powers as he reaches manhood. The original novel by Frank Herbert is considered one of the defining works of Western science fiction, almost the sci-fi equivalent of The Lord of the Rings.

You get glimpses here of so many things and so many recognizable faces, you almost can’t list them all. There’s Rebecca Ferguson as the stately Lady Jessica, Paul’s mother and teacher in his extraordinary abilities. There’s Zendaya as Chani, the native Fremen girl that Paul has witnessed in his dreams, or Jason Momoa as the warrior Duncan Idaho, one of Paul’s idols. And on the antagonist side, we also get a good look at Dave Bautista as “The Beast” Rabban, and a quicker glance at Stellan Skarsgard as the evil mastermind Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Really, there’s too many important sights to even process in a single viewing.

And so, get ready to ride the sandworm and check out the first Dune trailer for yourself below.