New 'Dune' Images Tease The Epic Battles And Timothée Chalamet's Desert Odyssey

As we get closer to the release of Denis Villeneuve's Dune, it appears that Warner Bros. has been happy to let the spice flow. And by spice, I mean spicy new images from the highly anticipated film based on Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel. Last week, we got an exciting new look at the sandworm, but this time we get to see more of the people who reside on the desert planet Arrakis. See the new Dune images below.

The latest batch of new Dune images tease some of the action of the film, with Jason Momoa's warrior Duncan Idaho fighting off several goons, while Oscar Isaac and Josh Brolin's Duke Leto and master-at-arms Gurney Halleck, respectively, look imposing in their Atreides battle armour. But most exciting is seeing protagonist Timothée Chalamet jump into action as Paul Atreides, who begins his desert odyssey with the help of Zendaya's mysterious Fremen tribeswoman Chani, who has glowing blue eyes.

Debuted by Empire in their recent Dune issue, the images give us a sense of the epic scale of Villeneuve's film, in contrast to the first images that were a little more on the subdued side. The interview with Chalamet, who makes a major pivot from arthouse dramas like Call Me By Your Name and Little Women, also teases some of the more action-packed parts of the film, with the actor describing a sequence they shot at Wadi Rum, a desert valley in Jordan.

"That part of the Wadi Rum is so awe-inspiring, you might as well be getting chased by that cliff in the background," Chalamet described. "It wasn't a green-screen or anything. That's one of the most thrilling parts of the book and the movie. We had the sketches. That was a lesson for me. On a Call Me By Your Name or Beautiful Boy it can be counterintuitive to see the storyboards because then maybe you limit yourself based on a camera angle or whatever. It's the opposite [here] because, for a sequence with the sandworm chasing you, I could never imagine that."

Also starring in Dune's ridiculously good-looking cast are Rebecca Ferguson as Paul's mother Jessica, Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Harkonnen, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Liet-Kynes, Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohiam, David Dastmcalchian as Piter De Vries, Chang Chen as Dr. Yueh, and Dave Bautista as the Baron's nephew Rabban.

Dune arrives in theaters on December 18, 2020.

A mythic and emotionally charged hero's journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity's greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.