Inspired by the novel Sisterhood Of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set 10,000 years before the Dune story by Frank Herbert that inspired Denis Villeneuve’s films, the six-episode show Dune: Prophecy (premiering on Crave in Canada, HBO and Max in the U.S., Nov. 17 at 9:00 p.m. ET) is the origin story of the Bene Gesserit. Starring Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Mark Strong, Jodhi May, Travis Fimmel, Josh Heuston, Chloe Lea, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, and Jade Anouka, showrunner and executive producer, Alison Schapker, was well aware of the “daunting” task of creating and releasing this series of the heels of Villeneuve’s movies.
“It’s certainly incredibly daunting, on the one hand, to be doing a television series that’s in the wake of such tremendous filmmaking that excited me and all of us who are involved with the series,” Schapker told reporters. “He really created a gorgeous and epic and moving and character-driven world that was very grounded.”
“So yes, we certainly were daunted, but only because we too wanted to tell a story in our own medium, on our own planets, and do our own world building in places that the films don’t take you, and have viewers who love the films feel like they can be in this other corner of the Dune universe, and not create any dissonance. … Epic but intimate was our mantra.”
“The movies are fantastic, you can’t deny that,” executive producer Jordan Goldberg added in a separate interview. “It’s great filmmaking.”
“But I think that we rose to the occasion. … Our partners in this, and HBO Max and Legendary, they always told us to deliver big, and that’s what we did.”
What is ‘Dune: Prophecy’ about?
Dune: Prophecy is largely centred around two Harkonnen sisters, Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams). Valya is Mother Superior, leader of the Sisterhood, striving to strengthen the group, training young women as Truthsayers to advise the Great Houses. Valya decides which of the Great Houses deserve their power. Reverend Mother Tula is Valya’s younger sister, who mostly does as her older sister dictates.
The school’s young student include Lila (Chloe Lea) and Theodosia (Jade Anouka), but Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), daughter of Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) and Empress Natalya (Jodhi May), is set to join the Sisterhood.
In addition to their adult lives, Dune: Prophecy dives into the Valya and Tula’s youth, and their path to their positions of standing in the Sisterhood.
Early in the series we see Ynez is set to get married to a child, for political reasons, which is the setting for a particularly strong scene where Empress Natalya is dressing her daughter.
“If you took my council you’d rule how you want and marry who you want,” Natalya says.
“Your not the only on who knows how to negotiate,” Ynez says in response.
As May highlighted, is a “bold, unconventional portrait of motherhood” that we see in this mother-daughter relationship.
“We talked about that scene as, on one level, it is an empress trying to teach a princess how to become strong, how to rule, how to use power,” she said. “And symbolically, the costumes, they’re like warriors kind of armour, but there are aspects of confinement as well that are explored within that scene.”
“So it’s a really interesting conversation between two generations of women who have entirely different perspectives. But there’s also a challenge as an actor, which is to sort of make that also sound like a mother in her young daughter’s bedroom, getting ready for an engagement party and not being too happy about this arranged marriage. … So it’s a beautifully written scene and … I think it’s a conversation that women will really tap into and feel is very now, and very of today.”
In a separate interview Boussnina added that it’s about these two character coming in “on completely different pages.”
“I think a lot of people can identify themselves with, you see what your parents do, or what they’re saying, and you’re like, ‘OK I want to do things a little bit differently,'” she said.
“I think for Ynez, she just looks up to the sisterhood so much and their abilities, and she wants to be powerful and strong and in control. And for her, that’s what the sisterhood represents. … I think it’s a really beautiful scene. It’s like that classical getting your daughter ready to wed kind of scene, only that the circumstances surrounding this engagement ceremony are quite different than a normal ‘I do.'”
‘I’ve never read a script with so many different and amazing female characters’
A particular highlight for many involved in show is not just being part of this women-led story, but being part of a show with so many distinct female characters.
“That was what made this project so special for me and made me so excited to be part of it,” Jade Anouka said. “Having female leads, having so many female characters and with such different experiences.”
“I feel like it’s quite rare in sci-fi to have that, so it feels like a real moment, that this could be a real moment going forward, and to be part of that, it’s really cool.”
“I’ve never read a script with so many different and amazing female characters,” Boussnina said in a separate interview. “And then to have Alison as the captain of this the ship has been incredible, creating the most loving, safe, creative environment for all of us.”
“Olivia and Jodhi and and Emily, just to learn from them, … they’re the best at what they do. So to see how they just elevate everyone around them, and not just actors in the scene, but also crew and making everyone bring their A game, because that’s what they do. … It’s been such a master class in acting.”
May highlighted that the story of Dune: Prophecy is something particularly powerful for young women to be able to see.
“I think what Alison is challenging us with is this question of how power is used in the universe of these characters, in this particular world of our story,” she said. “And I think that’s a really interesting and relevant question to be asking now in so many different ways, and I also think for a younger audience to be introduced to that is great.”
“I wish there was a series like this when I was a young girl growing up, because this kind of representation of women, and how women operate in a world of needing to sort of learn how to use power, learn how to get power, learn how to find their own voice, needs to be seen more on screen.”
“I’m always looking for a world where women are there, because that’s what I see in the world,” Schapker said in a separate interview. “I see women and men, and I don’t think one is at the expense of the other.”
‘It’s worrying that it’s taken this long to have a show dominated by the stories of women’
But Olivia Williams also highlighted that it’s “worrying” that it has taken so long to see a show of this scale led by women.
“It’s worrying that it’s taken this long to have a show dominated by the stories of women, be they good or evil but, but thank god it’s happened,” she said. “Thank god for Alison and HBO that they saw fit to tinker with the Dune franchise, to give us some really meaty drama to play with.”
“I would say that there are signs that women are being disempowered again and put back into the background and losing control over their destiny, and I think it’s interesting that in the context of this show, written by a man in the ’60s, in order to be powerful women have to be segregated from men. This is very like a convent. And that they are mysterious. They’re behind a veil. And men are very bemused about how we know when they’re lying, which I think is a very historical state of affairs. … It feeds into a sort of timeless male fear that they don’t understand what women are thinking, and that is our greatest superpower, and the second greatest one is we know when you’re lying.”
But Emily Watson also stressed that these are not “feminist icons.”
“These are terrible women. They have been empowered by a sect, a cult, to believe that they are special and that they have control of the universe, and there’s nothing wrong with that if you want to take take a leadership role in directing mankind on the right path, great,” she said said. “But they believe that the end justifies the means, and they commit terrible acts in their cause.”