‘Dune: Prophecy’ Stars on the Prequel’s Premiere, AI Foreshadowing and Going Back to ‘10,000 Years B.C. (Before Chalamet)’
variety.comJordan Moreau SPOILER ALERT:This article contains spoilers for the premiere of “Dune: Prophecy,” titled “The Hidden Hand,“ now streaming on Max.
Eight months after the premiere of the movie “Dune: Part 2,” it’s time to go 10,000 years into the story’s past with HBO’s prequel series “Dune: Prophecy.” Since the show is set in the distant past, there’s no Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen or Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan Corrino — but their family dynasties are well represented in “Dune: Prophecy.” The show explains the origins of the Bene Gesserit, the powerful, all-female sect that secretly pulls the political strings of the universe. (Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica and Lea Seydoux’s Lady Margot are among the most famous Bene Gesserit in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” movies.) Emily Watson and Olivia Williams star as Valya and Tula Harkonnen, two sisters who lead the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood.
The premiere episode starts with a flashback to the Butlerian Jihad, a war waged by humans against all thinking machines that’s one of the earliest events chronicled in the “Dune” novels.
The conflict wiped out (almost) every computer, House Atreides members were labeled heroes and the Harkonnens were villainized and banished.
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