Brendan MorrowUSA TODAY
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A plot to secure the throne. A marriage brokered to shore up an alliance. Sex. Betrayal. Shocking deaths.
No, it's not HBO's latest "Game of Thrones" series, but a TV spinoff of Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" franchise.
The epic big-screen experience moves to the small screen with "Dune: Prophecy" (premiering Sunday, 9 EST/PST and streaming on Max), a six-episode prequel set 10,000 years before the blockbuster movies and Frank Herbert's original novel. If the films were comparable to "Star Wars," the show is more in line with "Thrones," with its political scheming among a large cast of morally gray characters whose stories unfold in different corners of the world − not to mention explicit sex, a break from the PG-13 movies.
HBO executives didn't insist the series be family-friendly or appeal to all audiences, showrunner Alison Schapker says.
"We were very much encouraged to be as complex as we want, as adult as we want, and to live in that space that HBO has carved out for shows to be a little more (like) what would be R-rated in a film. And 'Dune' supports that. It really allows you to explore adult material."
More than a century after a war against thinking machines that led to a ban on artificial intelligence, "Prophecy" takes viewers behind the curtain of the Bene Gesserit, the secretive group of women who covertly manipulate galactic events.
At the center is Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and her sister Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams), who lead the Sisterhood − the organization that will become the Bene Gesserit − and are seen in two time periods, 30 years apart.
"The show demystifies the witch thing that the film focuses on," says Chloe Lea, who plays young Sisterhood student Lila. "What are these mysterious people? Why do they know so much, and why do we think they know so much? The show humanizes the characters. It shows that they're complex. They aren't just these witches who control everything, and they're not just these people to be feared."
In the movies, the Harkonnens are depicted as evil antagonists, including Stellan Skarsgård's despicable Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. But while Valya and Tula do terrible things, the series adds complexity to the family by suggesting the Harkonnens have a "good reason to be upset," Williams says. They've been disgraced due to allegations that Valya's great grandfather committed a war crime, but Valya insists the claims are false.
"As far as she's concerned, they have been banished because of a lie," Watson says. "Underneath everything she does to try and control the destiny of humankind is this very personal, raw anger."
This moral ambiguity makes Valya a "really modern character" who would feel at home in a grounded drama series outside of the sci-fi genre, says Jessica Barden, who plays her as a younger woman. "You watch dramas and people are doing bad stuff all the time. But this (sci-fi) genre is constantly asking, 'Are you a good guy or a bad guy?'"
'Dune: Prophecy' cast, producers reveal how the HBO series expands on the films
The series draws on books by Kevin J. Anderson and Herbert's son Brian Herbert, especially "Sisterhood of Dune" and its sequels, but adds original characters and storylines. The Herbert estate gave notes, using an encyclopedic knowledge of the canon to contribute ideas.
Villeneuve wasn't directly involved in "Prophecy," which was first announced in 2019 and went through a lengthy development process, due to commitments with the "Dune" movies, but Schapker chatted with the director. "He's just excited to see what we're going to do. I appreciated his love of filmmaking and of 'Dune,' and the fact that other creators are doing it made him really happy."
As in the films, the sisters in "Prophecy" are carrying out an elaborate, years-long plan − in this case, training Emperor Corrino's (Mark Strong) daughter Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) in their ways in order to get a member of the Sisterhood on the throne.
Ynez is an independent and rebellious woman who's close with her half-brother Constantine (Josh Heuston), a playboy whose reckless behavior causes problems. "He's getting torn between living up to his father's expectations but also trying not to fall into his old patterns of whatever vice that he can get addicted to or distract himself from the pain," Heuston says.
To capture the pressures placed on royal siblings, only one of whom is heir to the throne, the actors studied Prince William and Prince Harry. Heuston read Harry's memoir "Spare," while Boussnina watched interviews with them. She also reviewed footage of Harry and William as children walking behind the casket of their mother, Princess Diana.
"To be in that situation and still have to live up to those expectations of being royals and not show how you're really feeling on the inside, is something our characters (experience)," says Boussnina.
For their part, Watson and Williams went to London's National Portrait Gallery to view paintings of powerful women like Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. This helped Williams reflect on "what, as a woman, you had to present in order to be taken seriously by men. ... Even 20,000 years in the future, men are really freaked out about what happens when women get together," she says.
Fleshing out the ensemble cast of characters are Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason), an ancestor of Paul Atreides; the emperor's wife Natalya (Jodhi May); and Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), a mysterious soldier with a shocking revelation about a trip to Arrakis. Desmond's backstory and motivations are unclear in early episodes, but Fimmel was drawn to this ambiguity. "It's always more enjoyable for an actor to keep people guessing," he says.
But with its focus on a group consisting entirely of women, several scenes in "Prophecy" go by without a man on screen. The opportunity to star in a show with so many powerful female characters felt "sadly so unique," Lea says.
"It's such a privilege, even though it shouldn't be, to be part of something like this that doesn't have an issue with championing women in power. We need more shows like it that discuss women's relationships that don't have anything to do with men."
