As 2026 in movies reaches its final turn, one last major blockbuster looms on the horizon, casting a long shadow. Is it a spaceship? A Sandworm? No, it’s Denis Villeneuve‘s “Dune: Part Three,” the director’s final stop on the planet Arrakis before he departs for another cinematic universe entirely: the world of James Bond, 007.

READ MORE: ‘Dune: Part Three’ Trailer: Denis Villeneuve Returns To Arrakis For The ‘Dune Messiah’ Finale

But the Arrakis of Villeneuve’s new, trilogy-ending film is not the one from the 2021 and 2024 installments, as the director indicated to Empire in the outlet’s new exclusive first look at the movie. That’s because “Dune: Part Three” takes place 17 years after the events of “Part Two,” which saw Timothée Chalamet‘s Paul Atreides usurp power of the desert planet from the Harkonnens, avenge his father’s death, enact an intergalactic jihad, and take the galaxy’s throne as Emperor — but by betraying Zendaya‘s Chani in the process. The Imperium has changed since Paul took power, and so has Paul, explained Villeneuve: “We are back with the same characters, but this time the world has totally changed. Their psyches, their perspective on reality has totally changed, and Paul is living with the burden of what he created, trying to find a way out of this spiral of violence.”

For a new story arc, one that adapts Frank Herbert‘s 1969 sequel novel “Dune Messiah,” Villeneuve needed to make “Dune: Part Three” in a new style. “The idea was to try to make a movie that will have the same DNA — it’s a “Dune” movie — but it’s a very different movie,” he said. “It has a different pacing.” Much like Herbert’s novel, Villeneuve’s next film isn’t so much another action-packed space opera and heroic coming-of-age story as a dark, somber, calculated court drama. If “Dune” and “Part Two” were about Paul becoming a person who may wield power, “Part Three” is about the consequences of wielding it. For Paul, that includes a hardened heart, new enemies like Robert Pattinson‘s Scytale, and, most strangely, the return of old allies (but let’s not give away how Jason Momoa‘s Duncan Idaho is unexpectedly back in the picture).

No, this isn’t the same Paul Atreides from previous films, and Chalamet plays him that way. “That phrase ‘anti-hero’ gets thrown around a little too loosely, perhaps, but it’s fantastic to chew on as an actor, where it’s not purely redemptive,” the actor said about the evolution of the character. Chalamet also hinted that “Dune” fans who haven’t read Herbert’s books beyond the first one may be surprised at where “Part Three” goes. For him, Villeneuve’s film is “its own beast. It’s its own story, its own siege, its own hail of paranoid isolation.”

“Dune: Part Three” is also Villeneuve’s final stop on Arrakis, and for the director, that’s definitive. “I said, ‘Maybe it’s a good idea to go back to this project, not out of nostalgia, not because I miss it, but the opposite — I’m tired of it,’” he said about returning to the “Dune” franchise for one last film. “I want to make sure that I will be severe with the material. That I will not be complacent.” Now, kickstarting Amazon MGM‘s franchise reboot of James Bond lies ahead for Villeneuve, another ambitious project but one he’s happy to move on to. “I thought, ‘When [Dune: Part Three is] done, I need a very powerful rocket to pull me away from Arrakis,” said Villeneuve. “When I was asked to do the next Bond, I said: ‘Okay, this is what I need.’”

But before James Bond (and news about who Villeneuve cast as his 007), “Dune: Part Three” hits theaters on December 18. Expect Villeneuve’s last trip to Arrakis to be the best.