I hate to say it, but I think Duke is dead. I've rewatched the trailer many more times and after everyone is killed, it's not Duke walking out of the desert with Roadblock. In the ending when Roadblock says he knows someone they can call, it's not Duke with him there either.
It makes sense that Duke is killed in the movie. The Rock is doing most of the promotion for the movie. There is only the two scenes with Duke in the trailer. If Channing Tatum was a bigger star in the movie, he would grab more screen time.
Channing Tatum wouldn't have been my first choice for Duke (especially when Sam Worthington was in talks for the role in ROC). Duke is important to the G.I. Joe franchise, but in the 80's he disappeared a bit and other Joes like Leatherneck, Wetsuit, Lifeline, Dialtone and Mainframe became the stars of the cartoon and comic books.
Keep in mind that context and juxtaposition of shots in a trailer can be VERY misleading. For example: the shots of the "Rattler" jets, and then a shot of the Joes in the interior of some kind of vehicle can convey that the Joes are using Rattlers ( scaled up for transports) instead of them being COBRA craft.
Alos, a shot like the COBRA flags and banners unfurling at the White House in the middle of the trailer can imply that such a shot is in the body of the film, where it MIGHT well be placed as the very end shot--the close of the story, leading to a third. The shot is a classic truck-out to a wider shot reveal, which is often used to close out a story, especially one where a reveal is used to set up a cliffhanger/ to-be-continued type of ending.
So, as for Duke.........they could very well kill off the character ( and others) but they may also have an ace-in-the-hole kind of out for him to come back later on.
If anything, this is part of the psychology of a trailer at work here, especially a sequel movie trailer. We are already familliar enough with the characters to have a connection to them, so they can start pulling the strings on those characters to entice us.
They want us all to question things we see in the trailer, because those questions become hooks to get the audience to commit to seeing the film, and frankly I think they succeeded in that with this trailer alone. They may be setting things up as we assume, or they may have something very different planned, and there are things UNSEEN as yet, too. Have they shown us the big climatic set-piece yet? Why are the ninjas fighting on a cliff side......what's at the top of the cliff? Its a spectacular set-piece, but what's the context and place in the story? At this point, its very hard to say.
To add additional perspective: I DO suspect that the final battle is going to be in the New Orleans locale. I say that for two reasons: one from the trailer and one from the ET coverage a few weeks back. Both involved Roadblock fighting Firefly. In the trailer example, he's fighting him in civvie guise, at night in a seedy looking warehouse type setting......and likely not doing to well. In the ET coverage, there's a shot of Roadblock putting some kind of grappling hold on Firefly, while both are in the dirt near the shoreline, during the sunset. Very different locales, different situations, but one fight likely leads the other. Roadblock also has his "glory moment" with the Ma Deuce also in what appears to be the New Orleans location.
So.....take all that what you will, but do keep in mind that the trailer could well be "misleading" us to make connections where connections may not be valid. Conjecture with caution.
