New Dune trailer shows Timothée Chalamet fighting for his life – and the fate of a planet

A new full-length trailer for director Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic Dune has dropped – and it promises heart-stopping fight scenes and impressive feats of CGI.

Based on the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert, the movie focuses on a planet called Arrakis (also known as Dune), the only source of the most valuable substance in the universe – a drug called ‘the spice’ that extends human life, provides superhuman levels of thought, and makes faster-than-light travel possible.

Oscar Isaac is Duke Leto Atreides, the man in control of Arrakis. Timothée Chalamet is his son Paul. After a bitter betrayal he must seek refuge among the Fremen, the native people of the planet who live in the desert – one of these people is Chani, played by Zendaya, who features heavily in the new trailer, along with Paul. Oh, and throw some dangerous giant sandworms into the mix, too. The all-star cast also includes Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgård, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem.

"The outsiders ravage our lands in front of our eyes. Their cruelty to my people is all I've known," Chani says as the trailer begins, and it looks like there'll be fights and battles a-plenty in the movie – Chalamet wielding a sword is not something you see every day, after all. The stakes are high, too, as the lives of all the Fremen are at risk.

We have high hopes for the movie, and so does the Herbert family. "This is a really big movie, a major project that will forever be considered the definitive film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic novel," the author's son Brian told Inverse last year. "Fans are going to love this movie. Denis Villeneuve is the perfect director to do Dune."

Dune has, of course, been adapted before, most infamously by David Lynch in 1984. With an eclectic cast including Kyle MacLachlan, Patrick Stewart and Sting, the movie was a box office bomb and received generally negative reviews.

While we wait for Dune to arrive in theaters and on HBO Max on October 22, check out our list of the best sci-fi movies of all time. And if you don't have a subscription yet, take a look at our guide to the best HBO Max prices.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related. I help bring you all the latest news, features, and reviews, as well as helming our Big Screen Spotlight column. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.