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- Dune: Part Three cast tease trilogy's ending as Zendaya confirms "departures" from novel Dune Messiah
Dune: Part Three cast tease trilogy's ending as Zendaya confirms "departures" from novel Dune Messiah
The final chapter of Denis Villeneuve's acclaimed sci-fi epic arrives in cinemas next month.
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- Patrick Cremona
Published: Thursday, 5 November 2026 at 10:43 am
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As we approach the end of the year, there are still some pretty major film releases to come – and they don't get much bigger than the closing instalment of Denis Villeneuve's Dune trilogy.
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Dune: Part Three will be released in cinemas on Friday 18 December and sees many of the cast from the previous two entries reprising their roles alongside some huge new additions such as Robert Pattinson.
And with the countdown now well and truly on until the film's release, that starry cast have begun to tease what we can expect to see in this latest film, which is adapted from the second book in Frank Herbert's sci-fi series, Dune Messiah.
Speaking to The New York Times, Paul Atreides star Timothée Chalamet teased that "this movie is its own thing" when compared to the previous two, explaining: "It didn’t feel like the bar dropped at all, Denis just changed the location of the bar."
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Meanwhile, Zendaya – who is reprising her role as Chani – explained that although "there’s a lot in this film that is very true to the source material" there would also be some "departures."
And Pattinson – who joins the ensemble as shapeshifting antagonist Scytale – added that you would have to be "crazy" to be finding faults in the film, which he explained turned out different that he'd first anticipated.
The script was really cool, but it was quite complicated," he said. "And watching the film, it’s not about what I thought it was going to be about at all.
"It reads as much more of a grand political, moral fable, and the movie is so much more emotional. A lot of it is about parenting, and I just thought it was so moving."
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The final trailer for the film was released last week, teasing all sorts of political scheming and all-out warfare as well as giving us our first look at Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke as Paul and Chani's twin children Leto II Atreides and Ghanima Atreides.
Other key cast members in the film include Anya Taylor-Joy as Paul's unsettling all-seeing sister Alia Atreides, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, Charlotte Rampling as Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam and Jason Momoa as a reimagined version of Paul's old swordmaster, Duncan Idaho.
Both previous films in the trilogy were nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards, and the pre-release expectation is that this final entry could also be a major player when it comes to the Oscars race.
Given what we've heard so far, we certainly wouldn't bet against that being the case.
Dune: Part Three will be released in UK cinemas on 18 December 2026.
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Authors
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
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