Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary novel Dune has developed a reputation as some of the best sci-fi cinema of the 21st century. Beginning with 2021’s Dune and then continuing with this year’s Dune: Part Two, Villeneuve’s films have established themselves as some of the definitive cinematic works of this decade so far.
In a landscape dominated by never-ending franchises like Star Wars and the MCU, Villeneuve crafted two groundbreaking and thought-provoking blockbusters that harken back to Hollywood’s heyday in the late 20th century.
Dune
- Release Date
- October 22, 2021
- Runtime
- 2hr 35min
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
With his two films, Villeneuve has now covered the entirety of Herbert’s first Dune novel, and the director has been open about his intent to adapt the second book, Dune Messiah, into a third film to complete his trilogy. With the incredible success of Dune: Part Two, a third Dune movie would seem like an easy win in terms of audience interest, but there’s one outside factor that could affect Villeneuve’s film series. That potential hiccup comes in the form of Dune: Prophecy, a prequel series that is set to debut on Max later this year. Here’s what we know:
The Dune: Prophecy Prequel Series
When we say that Dune: Prophecy is a prequel to Villeneuve’s films, we don’t mean in the same way that the Star Wars prequels preceded George Lucas’ original trilogy. It’s not a story about a young Duke Leto or Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV or anything like that. There will be no returning characters in the prequel series, as it is set millennia beforehand. Its story will focus on new characters that lived about 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, his takeover of Arrakis and the holy war that followed.
Dune: Prophecy is a story about the founding of the Bene Gesserit, the mysterious organization that secretly orchestrates the political dealings of the Imperium and attempts to produce the legendary Kwisatz Haderach through carefully crossing bloodlines. The Bene Gesserit has played a substantial role in Villeneuve’s films, as Paul’s mother, Jessica, is a Bene Gesserit who serves at the behest of the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohaim. The Reverend Mother appears throughout both Dune films, most notably in the opening act of the first film, where she tests Paul with the Gom Jabbar.
Looking beyond the plot, one of the most important things to know about Dune: Prophecy (formerly titled Dune: The Sisterhood) is that it comes mostly from a different creative team. While Denis Villeneuve going to direct a couple of episodes and his co-writer Jon Spaihts was originally hired as the showrunner, neither of those are the case anymore.
The show has gone through many changes and creative reshuffling behind-the-scenes, and it ultimately settled on Alison Schapker (Altered Carbon, Fringe, Alias and more) as the writer and showrunner. Villeneuve remains on-board as an executive producer, though he is no longer going to direct any of the series, as he had to step away to focus on Dune: Part Two.
Dune: The Prophecy
- Release Date
- 2024-00-00
- Seasons
- 1
- Studio
- HBO Max, Legendary Television, Pioneer Stillking Films
The Success of Dune: Part Two
While Dune is clearly a strong story and franchise on its own, the success of 2021’s Dune and 2024’s Dune: Part Two are very directly the result of the creative team behind the films. These movies would not be what they are without the incredible work done by Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, cinematographer Greig Fraser, editor Joe Walker, composer Hans Zimmer and many, many more. This team has clearly all gotten on the same page about what they wanted these movies to be, and the result is a cinematic experience that cannot be easily replicated.
While that’s not to say that nobody else can make a great Dune story, it is somewhat nerve-wracking that very little of that creative team is involved with Dune: Prophecy. While we are hopeful that Prophecy will be a great show – Schaphker clearly has talent and the show features a solid cast that includes Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel and Mark Strong – we have seen more than a few franchises be derailed by the decisions to produce spin-off streaming series over the last few years.
Major series like Star Wars and the MCU have lost much of their greatness as a result of them being spread too thin by balancing both movies and streaming shows, rather than focusing on their core stories.
The biggest concern with Dune: Prophecy is the timing of it. We aren’t opposed to the idea of a Dune streaming series, but the franchise would benefit from holding off on spin-offs until after Villeneuve’s trilogy is complete. Dune has a lot of momentum as a result of Villeneuve’s films, and it is going to need as much good will as it can muster going into Villeneuve’s Dune Messiah – a story that is notoriously dense and slow.
If Dune: Prophecy comes out and ends up being terrible, it could easily kill a lot of the newfound interest in the series from general audiences, making Villeneuve’s Messiah an even steeper challenge.
Frank Herbert’s Dune vs Brian Herbert’s Dune
Finally, our last cause for concern regarding Dune: Prophecy is the story it is based on. While the series will likely do a lot to develop the world and lore of Villeneuve’s series, it is pulled from a very different take on Dune than Villeneuve’s is. While Villeneuve’s Dune films are based on the books written by Frank Herbert, who wrote a total of six Dune novels between 1965 and 1985, Dune: Prophecy is adapting a story written by his son, Brian Herbert and co-writer Kevin J. Anderson.
With many of their stories based on outlines, notes and ideas that Frank Herbert had written down before his death in 1986, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have published well-over 20 Dune stories since their first, Dune: House Atreides, in 1999. These books explore many aspects of the Dune universe and lore, ranging from the Butlerian Jihad (basically a massive war between humanity and artificial intelligence) to the origins of the great houses Artriedes, Harkonnen, Corrino and more. As for the Dune: Prophecy series, it is pulling specifically from the 2012 novel Sisterhood of Dune, which details the origin of the Bene Gesserit and their role during and after the Butlerian Jihad.
While the Dune stories written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson certainly have their fans, they are widely considered to be far from the same quality as the stories originally published by Frank Herbert. Most of these newer books take Dune and water it down into something equivalent to essentially any other random sci-fi novel that you can find out there.
They are missing much of the personality, edge and commentary that made Herbert’s original novels so iconic. By bringing this kind of story into live-action with Dune: Prophecy and specifically attaching it to Villeneuve’s films, the entire franchise is at risk of falling from the incredible height that it currently resides at. Dune: Prophecy could be great, and we genuinely hope it is, but it’s also a substantial risk to release before Villeneuve completes his trilogy.
