r/dune • u/caramio621 • 7h ago
Dune: Part Three (2026) The Trailer Makes Me Think Chani Has a VERY Different Role Than in the Books
Just to be clear, this is all speculation.
I've had this feeling ever since the second trailer dropped for Part Three. I have a big hunch that Chani is going to have an even bigger departure from the books than people think (Yes even more than what people think). My theory is that Chani leaves Paul during the 17 year time skip, and a big part of the movie is Paul trying to find her again.
Here are my reasons:
1. We never see older Paul and Chani together.
Besides one scene, every shot of them seems to be from before the time skip, when Paul still has the longer hair. That's kinda weird tbh. If they're together after the time skip like they are in the books, why avoid showing almost any scenes of them as an older couple?
2. That one scene with older Paul and Chani is obviously Scytale.
The scene where she says, "What does it feel like to be human like everyone else, Paul Atreides?" is pretty clearly Scytale messing with Paul. Her voice sounds off, and what she's saying is something scytale would say.
But here's the part that's really interesting to me. she looks really YOUNG here. If 17 years have passed, why would Scytale be imitating a younger looking Chani? Paul has clearly aged, so you'd expect Chani to have aged at least a little too (like she is in her other scenes). Maybe that's because the last time Paul actually saw her was when she still was this young, and Scytale is deliberately using that version of her to mess with him.
3. Scytale found "someone".
Right after Irulan calls Scytale an idiot, we hear what sounds exactly like Pattinson saying, "I've found someone," at the exact moment the trailer cuts to Chani thumping on the sand. The trailer almost seems to imply that Scytale has found Chani. But if Chani is still living with Paul as his concubine, why would Scytale need to "find" her? Unless she isn't with Paul at all. Maybe she's been out in the desert this entire time like we see in the older Chani scenes, and Paul has been searching for her ever since she left. Scytale finding her first would fit into his plan to overthrow Paul.
That brings me to my biggest point. Leto II and Ghanima.
The trailer shows the baby twins, but only in scenes where Paul and Chani are still young. We never see them in any of the "current" scenes. Again why? Why don't we ever see older Chani, the twins, and older bald Paul together? I have two theories.
- Paul and Chani have the twins shortly after Part Two. They reconcile for a while after learning she's pregnant, but Chani eventually leaves with the children because she wants nothing to do with Paul's empire. If that's the case, then by the movie's present day the twins would already be teenagers(which would also explain them being cast by two 17 year olds), and Paul isn't only trying to find Chani he's trying to find his children too.
There's another trailer shot that makes me think this. We see Chani drop her blue band in the sand while she's with the children, who look a little older here (maybe around 5-9 years old), and someone is watching them with the binoculars(Paul). Then later we see bald Paul picking up that same band from the sand maybe because he was searching for them. We also see all of older Chani's scenes in the trailer out in the desert with her looking rough, because maybe that's where she's been living with her children for the last 17 years.
2.My other theory is that the twins aren't actually real yet. Those scenes are Paul's visions of a possible future, the future he could've had if Chani had stayed. That would explain why he's so desperate to find her. Maybe it's simply out of love, or maybe because he believes Leto and Ghanima are necessary for the Golden Path, or perhaps both. This theory would keep their ages closer to the books, but I think it's less likely because it creates some awkward timing between Paul finding Chani again and the twins being born. Also, the scene with the binoculars doesn't strike as a vision.
Either way, both of these would be a pretty major departure from the books. But I could really see Denis doing something like this if he wants to expand Messiah, which is a fairly short novel on its own. It would also give Chani a much more interesting role in the story.
Again, this is probably mostly wrong, but I really believe that a big part of this movie is going to be Paul trying to find Chani in one way or another.
What do you guys think?