The first official trailer for Dune: Part Two, the second installment of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic space opera, has finally dropped—and boy, oh boy, is it everything we could ever hope for. I feel the Dune brain rot slowly taking possession of me as we speak.
Of course, the trailer didn’t actually reveal much about the general plot of the movie, but there are definitely hints for those who have already read the Dune books or watched David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation (or just know how things are going to evolve).
Still, there were several frenzy-inducing moments besides that one—yeah, the one we had all been waiting for ever since we saw that Fremen ride a sandworm at the very end of Dune, showing us that there’s much more to Arrakis’ Shai-Hulud than what Paul could have ever suspected.
Among the first shots of Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, and Léa Seydoux as Lady Margot Fenring—characters who are being introduced in this movie and who are all absolutely amazing—one detail that has me spinning around my office is one that comes toward the end of the trailer.
We see Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides getting ready to fight a ritual duel—while we don’t see the face of the person he’s fighting, that silhouette definitely gives us an idea—by saying to his rival, “may [your] knife chip and shatter.” And while he does that, he finally has the blue-within-blue eyes that we’ve seen on Zendaya’s Chani and Javier Bardem’s Stilgar.
There are few elements of worldbuilding that I love more than “eye colors that have a deeper meaning within the lore,” and I’ve been freaking out about Paul finally getting the blue-within-blue eyes ever since that clip of his vision in Dune, where he sees himself and Chani looking over legions fighting in his name. So you can imagine the state I’m in now that he actually has them—especially considering what it means for his story and the plot of Dune: Part Two.
What’s up with the blue eyes in Dune?
The blue-within-blue eyes that we see on the faces of several characters in Dune are not your regular blue eyes. The irises shine a bright, almost electric shade of blue and there’s no white to be found in their sclerae (the whites of the eyes). The Fremen call them the Eyes of Ibad, and the reason they exist is the same thing that moves pretty much everything in the Dune universe: spice melange.
As we know, the reason the planet Arrakis is so important in the grand scheme of the galactic Imperium is that it’s the sole location where the spice melange, known simply as “the spice,” can be found. No other planet has the unique conditions found on Arrakis—sandworms included, since they are a fundamental part of the process that creates spice.
Once mined—a feat that comes with challenges like the enduring the unrelenting heat of Arrakis, operating the heavy machinery needed to perform the actual task of extracting the spice from the sand, and the aforementioned sandworms showing up to swallow everything in their path—this orange-brown cinnamon-scented powder pretty much keeps the Imperium afloat.
As Baron Vladimir Harkonnen says in David Lynch’s adaptation of Dune, “he who controls the spice controls the universe.” And that’s because the spice isn’t just for the people all over the galaxy who like to spike their drinks with it to feel a little zap of euphoria: When melange is used in high dosages it can actually induce superhuman abilities.
Most notably, the Navigators of the Spacing Guild immerse themselves in it to safely travel through space, something that they do in a trance-like state. The Bene Gesserit use the spice to give themselves clairvoyance and the ability to access the memories of their ancestors—something that the Fremen also do on Arrakis. So you can see how the Emperor would want to keep tight control on Arrakis and why the noble house that ends up ruling the planet has the potential to gain incredible wealth from controlling both the mining process of the spice and its trade.
While spice addicts around the galaxy usually try to conceal their blue-within-blue eyes, since they’re an obvious tell, the Fremen are very proud to display them. After all, they have been breathing and consuming spice since their birth and their eyes are one of their most distinctive traits.
And that’s the same thing that happens to Paul and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), who also sports blue-within-blue eyes for the majority of the trailer—though the specifics of their spice consumption might veer too close to spoiler territory, so we’ll just leave it at that.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
