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Timothée Chalamet Leads the War Cry in ‘Desert Chant,’ the First Taste of the ‘Dune: Part Three’ Soundtrack

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Few modern film scores have shaped a franchise quite like the music of Arrakis, and anticipation for the ‘Dune: Part Three’ soundtrack has been building for months. Hans Zimmer’s sweeping, choral soundscapes have become as recognizable as the sandworms themselves, and fans have been eager to hear where the composer takes Paul Atreides next.

That hunger was on full display in July, when Chalamet made a surprise appearance at a global IMAX fan event in Los Angeles, joining director Denis Villeneuve for a Q&A after the first trailer debuted. The crowd chanted his name while others hummed Zimmer’s now-iconic score, and the trailer itself leaned on a haunting chant that quickly became one of its most discussed elements.

Now that chant has a proper release. On October 20, WaterTower Music released ‘Desert Chant,’ which features Chalamet’s vocals alongside Zimmer’s score for Villeneuve’s upcoming sci-fi epic, and it is the first single from the film’s official soundtrack, available now on all major digital platforms.

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The song opens with Chalamet humming before climbing into the war chant, and it was written by Zimmer, who scored the first two films as well. With this release, Chalamet’s voice becomes a central piece of the film’s musical identity, giving fans an early sense of how the next chapter of Paul’s story will sound.

The track is already familiar to anyone who studied the trailers closely. Slashfilm observed that the cue lets an early chant swell into a whirl of drums and voices that grows overwhelmingly oppressive, likening Paul’s zealotry to modern celebrity and noting that the beat almost resembles a hip-hop track. Tom’s Guide admitted to getting goosebumps as Chalamet’s chant took over the footage.

The release arrives with a reflective note from the composer, a two-time Academy Award and five-time Grammy winner, who shares billing with four-time Academy Award and Grammy nominee Chalamet. “When two teenagers are deeply moved by the same novel that lets their imagination run wild, so wild that the mysticism and philosophy that captured their souls never let them go, they will inevitably meet and become creative brothers,” Zimmer said in a statement published by Variety.

That line appears to nod to his creative partnership with Villeneuve, since the two bonded over their shared love of Frank Herbert’s novel while working together on ‘Blade Runner 2049’. Zimmer added that the beauty of working on ‘Dune’ was that it carried him back to a time of youthful imagination, when everything felt true, and the impossible seemed possible.

There is also an awards subplot worth watching. Zimmer won Best Score for the original film, one of 6 Oscars it collected, but his ‘Dune: Part Two’ score was ruled ineligible because the Academy limits sequel and franchise scores to no more than 20% pre-existing themes and music, and that score drew substantially on his 2021 work.

The ruling didn’t stop the ‘Part Two’ score from winning the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. Whether the final chapter’s music clears the Academy’s bar remains to be seen, but a fresh vocal centerpiece like ‘Desert Chant’ is an intriguing opening move.

Inspired by Herbert’s ‘Dune Messiah,’ the new film is set 17 years after the previous installment and follows the fallout of Paul’s reign as emperor. Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Jason Momoa, Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson, Isaach de Bankolé, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Charlotte Rampling are all back, while Robert Pattinson joins in a new role.

Expectations are sky-high, given that the first film grossed more than $400 million worldwide and ‘Dune: Part Two’ took in roughly $714.71 million, ranking 7th at the global box office in its year.

At the July event, Chalamet stressed that the team didn’t simply find a formula and run it back, and the darker tone of this single seems to back that up. ‘Dune: Part Three’ hits cinemas and IMAX in December, with international releases starting December 16 and North America following on December 18.

What do you think of Timothée Chalamet’s vocals in ‘Desert Chant’ from ‘Dune: Part Three’?

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