This has been one of the most highly anticipated press tours of the last few years – Dune: Part 2 opens on March 1 and this week its young cast has started promotion. The first film was released in 2021 when the box office was still really struggling from COVID and still brought in over $400 million worldwide and six Oscar wins.
So there are big expectations for the sequel, especially since the film promises to include more Zendaya, and Florence Pugh and Austin Butler have been added to the cast. Along with Timothée Chalamet, these are the four brightest talents of their generation with multiple Oscar nominations already between them and two Emmy wins for Zendaya. And, of course, as we all know, all of them are tremendously popular with the online community. Then, on top of all that, there’s the fashion. Individually, especially with Zendaya, if she’s getting dressed to go somewhere, you know it’s going to shut down the internet. But now there’s FOUR of them all at the same time? We are in for four weeks of screaming, crying, gagging, snatching, and slaying on TikTok. It started already when Flo posted this serve on IG yesterday:
Here they are at Jimmy Kimmel Live! yesterday, kicking it off in North America. It’s always interesting to me where they decide start and end. A major talk show appearance featuring the four of them at the beginning of the tour – and it’s going to be a global tour, no doubt. There will be worldwide stops. So I’m curious whether or not the marketing plan is to keep the Dune Fab Four all together for each stop, or if they’ll be splitting them up. If I were on that strategy committee, I would strongly push to keep them together.
This is what people want to see which is what Kimmel got last night with the four of them showing up to talk about the movie and their friendship and their experiences on set. Flo seems to be the most relaxed, while the other three are adorably awkward and earnest. That’s another thing to watch for – whether or not they gradually loose up as the month progresses and when the exhaustion kicks in, whether or not it gets increasingly chaotic, in a fun away. These tours can be gruelling. They’re probably hitting multiple countries, several different time zones in a week, with screenings and interviews and photo shoots and photo calls and carpets along the way. Timothée just came off of one in November through December for Wonka and as extensive as that one was, the Dune: Part 2 promo will probably be even more.
