Final Dune 3 trailer focuses on Paul’s end. Will Villeneuve deviate from the books?

We now have a final trailer for Dune: Part Three ahead of its 16th December release. There’s a lot of notable stuff in there if you pay close attention, and you have some knowledge from the books.

Because that knowledge can be considered a spoiler, we will save it for after the trailer, which is embedded below.

Okay, so this last look at Dune: Part Three heavily implies that this will be the end of Paul Atreides. He has spent 19 years conquering thousands of worlds, killing untold billions of people in the process. As Paul himself states, he has become the oppressor he and Chani tried to topple in the first two movies.

In the books, Paul and his bloodline are trying to use oppression to lead to freedom and the next stage of prosperous humanity across the stars. It’s a long plan, involving a ridiculous timescale and a lot of scheming, but eventually this does kind of work, though if the galaxy is better or worse after generations of Atreides wars is up to interpretation.

Also in the books, the end of Paul isn’t so action-packed as some may expect. The once unstoppable leader goes blind, wonders into the desert and returns as a preacher before then meeting his end. This kind of long, drawn out fate may not be what moviegoers want, so we have to wonder if director Denis Villeneuve will do it.

That being said, this trailer does seem to imply that Paul will lose his vision. We get multiple shots of his eyes close up (notably at the 1:46 mark) and in the final bit of the trailer – while talking to Chani – we can see the brilliant blue glow in his eyes from Spice use is now completely gone. See the shot of that in the image at the top of this page.

Only time will tell what will happen to Paul in this final movie. While the real story of Dune is told over many books, this will be the close of the Villeneuve interpretation. Will we see the future of the galaxy in an ending sequence or will Villeneuve leave it up in the air as the credits roll?

Finally, we want to mention something near the end of the trailer, around the 1:59 mark. Paul says “promise me you will protect my family” and we get a closeup of two seemingly random Fremen. A man and a woman, these are Paul and Chani’s children, Leto Atreides II and Ghanima Atreides. Again, returning to the books and Leto takes the plans of the Atreides family and pushes them even further, and eventually, merges with a Sandworm.

If you’ve ever seen odd art from Dune showing a human crossed with a Sandworm, it was likely art of Leto II. As much as we’d love to see that in live action, we doubt Dune: Part Three will get to this.

We’re sure that these are the children as their actors have been confirmed. These actors are Ida Brooke as Ghanima and Nakoa-Wolf Momoa as Leto II and, yes, that’s Jason Mamoa’s son.

Brooke (left) and Momoa (right).

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