In a Berlin IMAX theatre, the audience was waving their phone lights like a concert crowd, and Timothée Chalamet, patched in from Los Angeles, paused mid-sentence. “What’s going on in Berlin? Are you at a rave?” he asked, laughing. Moments earlier, he had offered a grinning apology to German fans for their team’s World Cup exit — a quip that went unheard in the room but surfaced later in social-media clips. The exchange, part of a worldwide fan event for Dune: Part Three, set a playful tone that quickly gave way to something more reflective.

Chalamet’s surprise appearance alongside director Denis Villeneuve drew immediate roars from linked theatres in Abu Dhabi, Chicago, Toronto, and beyond. The actor, who has played Paul Atreides across all three films, described the story as a warning about charismatic leaders, noting that Frank Herbert wrote Dune Messiah partly because readers had mistaken Paul for a classic hero. “Even people with good intentions can end up corrupted,” he said. Villeneuve called the final chapter “more of a thriller, a more intense story, and definitely more emotional,” with a rhythm distinct from the first two films.

When a fan question from Abu Dhabi turned the conversation to the desert, Villeneuve did not hesitate. “The mornings in the desert, to feel the energy as the sun comes up, and the crew, to feel the excitement and the wonder in the crew members’ eyes,” he said. “Every morning, I had these chills.” Chalamet recalled the stillness of those early hours in the Liwa Desert, where the production returned for a 31-day shoot involving more than 600 UAE-based crew and contractors. “You almost feel like you’re on a safari,” he said. “It was a really special experience.”

The first trailer, screened during the event, opens with Chani confronting Paul: “You promised me you would never take power into your hands.” It then cuts through rain-soaked battlefields, shape-shifting antagonists, and the return of Jason Momoa as a resurrected Duncan Idaho. The footage ends not with a triumphant swell but with Paul’s empire fracturing under the weight of a holy war fought in his name, leaving the once-revered leader haunted by visions of collapse and the ghost of a long-lost love.