Let's review what's happening with Dune: Prophecy, the prequel series of films for the Max streaming platform.
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| Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures |
With the recent success of the blockbuster Dune – Part 2 all eyes are now on the continuation of the science fiction saga and its television spin-off announced for HBO's streaming platform, Max. However, the silence that has existed around the series for months Dune: Prophecy is nothing short of thunderous. We can deduce that this prequel to Dune – which should tell the origins of the Bene Gesserit, about ten thousand years before the events of the films – has gone through multiple changes, ending up in the circle of hell of television productions, which led to the abandonment by several key team members.
A constant coming and going
We remember that, originally, the person responsible for the television spin-off would have been Denis Villeneuve himself... but the director then decided to give priority to the film section of the franchise and, together with him, also the screenwriter Jon Spaiths. But those weren't the last creative changes. An odyssey of changes and stops began at the end of 2022 and continues to this day. The earthquakes began in November 2022, when we learned of the departure of the co-creator of the series, Diane Ademu-John, leaving Alison Schapker (who was already replacing Scott Z. Burns) in command; months later we learned that they had also lost their director, Johan Renck, and Shirley Henderson, who would star in the series (then called Dune: Sisterhood), alongside Emily Watson.
A real earthquake in the production of the series caused profound changes even in the very story it would tell. In fact, in recent statements in an interview for The Playlist, Johan Renck assures that the spin-off had transformed into something completely different from what was talked about at the time: “Many things happened, but no one can be responsible for it, the showrunners and the original idea of the story exchanged each other and it completely changed its course also because it was called Dune: Sisterhood, and then it changed its name and became something completely different. Again, it's something that can happen in episodic TV, if you're okay with it and can survive in that environment it works great, but it has never been or will ever be something for me."
Furthermore, in the same interview, the director states that the producers assured him that the series should "have nothing to do with [Villeneuve's] films, it's an animal in its own right". Now we'll have to see what exactly he means by this... especially since so far we haven't seen a single image from the fiction. In fact, the overwhelming success of Dune – Part 2 could have been the perfect moment to remind fans of the saga (and viewers in general) of the existence of Dune: Prophecy, through some photos or a teaser. Especially considering its premiere scheduled for late 2024.
A thunderous silence before a powerful arrival?
The absence of a teaser trailer was attributed to it being "too early" because, among other things, the series is still in production. Fortunately, the latest update on the project is quite optimistic. In an interview with Collider, the director of photography of Dune: Prophecy, Pierre Gill, assured that filming on the series ended last Christmas 2023… but that a long post-production remains that will take almost a year, the end of 2024 There remains a viable release date.
Naturally, Gill assures us that the silence on the project will last a few more months... a period in which we will still live in uncertainty since, as we have seen many times lately, it would not be the first time that a Max series has been canceled out of nowhere. This prequel, remember, follows the story of Valya and Tula Harkonnen and their ties to a sect that will end up being the mystical Bene Gesserit. The cast includes Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Jodhi May, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Shalom Brune Franklin, Faoileann Cunningham, Aoife Hinds, Chloe Lea, Travis Fimmel, Mark Strong, Jade Anouka and Chris Mason, among others.
