Dune trailer may have already spoiled a tragic twist
You can't ignore the sandworm in the room.
The first trailer for Denis Villeneuve's Dune has so many overwhelmingly awesome moments that it's tough to just point to one thing. From the casting to the overall look of the movie, this feels like the Arrakis fans have been hoping to see for decades. But amid the spectacle of Sandworms and House Atreides, it seems like there might be a giant Dune spoiler in plain sight.
Spoilers for the novel Dune ahead. (Possible spoilers for Dune 2020, too.)
Although there's not an image that is entirely equivalent in the trailer itself, there is badass image of Momoa as Duncan making the rounds, and it seems very likely this single image contains a pretty big spoiler. In the trailer, around the 1:35 mark, you'll see an ever-so brief shot of Momoa wearing all black, surrounded by enemies. In the next shot, he's fighting while wearing a white shirt.
You can briefly see Duncan fighting in all-black attire around 1:30 to 1:35 in the trailer. In the next shot, he's wearing white.
In the officially released image from Dune below, we again see Duncan all in black. Without the quick cuts, we can see he's probably fighting Sardaukar soldiers. The Sardaukar are elite military commandos Duncan helped train before working for House Atreides. They work directly for the Emperor, but have aligned with the Harkonnens to bring down the Atreides. They are hard to kill.
Duncan versus what look like Sardaukar commandos.
In this image, Duncan wears a stillsuit, which you have to wear to survive in the deep desert of Arrakis. If he's in the desert, alone, fighting off what could be a bunch of Sardaukar soldiers, it's highly likely that this image is Duncan's death scene.
In the book, Duncan fights off and slays at least 19 Sardaukar soldiers to save Jessica and Paul before he is killed by a head wound. Because of the stillsuit, and because he's surrounded and alone, this really looks like the moment where Duncan dies. It might not be, and it's not exactly clear how the Dune film will handle Duncan's death (assuming they even get to it in the first movie), but if this is his last stand, it's interesting that one of the first glimpses of Duncan is actually his final moments.
Well, not really. Although the original Duncan does die, he is cloned and brought back to life as what is called a Ghola, which is basically Dune's version of a Synth combined with a Replicant. So, even if Duncan does die in the first Dune film, if the sequel touches on the events of Dune Messiah or Children of Dune at all, then that means Duncan's final moments is actually just the beginning.
Right now Dune is still expected to hit theaters in December 2020.
