First Photos: “Dune: Part Two”

By
Garth Franklin
-
Warner Bros. Pictures

Warner Bros. Pictures has premiered the first official stills from Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” as part of a feature story in Vanity Fair. The photos come in the wake of the film’s first trailer reveal at CinemaCon yesterday – a trailer that has since been confirmed to be released online within the next two weeks.

The photos offer the very first looks at several new key characters from the book that weren’t in the first part – including a bald Austin Butler as the lethal Feyd-Rautha, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan and Lea Seydoux as Lady Margot – a Bene Gesserit sister described as a “secret agent” in the film.

One new to the film not on display in the photos is Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam IV. Even Feyd’s reveal is only a from-behind silhouette, Villeneuve deliberately keeping him under wraps for now. Returnees like Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard and Dave Bautista can also be seen in the shots.

Villeneuve confirms the film begins immediately where the first one left off – there’s no time jump an he confirms this is very much a ‘second part’ as opposed to a sequel.

Talking about the tone, he says whilst it’s “a war epic action movie,” he also “wanted to make a very human movie, very close to the characters, despite the scope of the film,” with the epicenter of the story being Paul and Chani’s relationship.

This follow-up film will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. He sets out to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

In terms of where the film is currently at, he says he’s “deep into sound design and the visual effects” and it’s a race against time ahead of the film’s opening on November 3rd.