How HBO’s Dune: Prophecy Will Reveal The History of The Bene Gesserit

Following the success of Denis Villeneuve’s films, Dune: Prophecy is set to expand the world of the Dune franchise in a new HBO series set thousands of years before Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) rose to prominence. The upcoming show follows the arrival of the Bene Gesserit, a superhuman sisterhood with immense social, religious, and political influence across the Dune universe. Not only will Prophecy connect directly with the first Dune film and its sequel, Dune: Part Two, but it will unveil a completely new cast of characters with their own destinies to fulfill.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dune: Prophecy showrunner Alison Schapker discusses how the prequel series will reveal the beginning of the Bene Gesserit. The sisterhood’s origins will be told through the rise of Valya Harkonnen, as played by Emily Watson (Chernobyl), a character who stems from House Harkonnen and eventually becomes one of the first Reverend Mothers of the Beme Gesserit. Dune: Prophecy follows her ascension to power, but as Schapker puts it, this is not a “girlhood coming-of-age” narrative.

“We get to see how it all started. When we meet Valya Harkonnen, she is a girl whose family has experienced a tremendous fall from power and has lost its noble status. She dreams of restoring what she feels is rightfully theirs. How she goes from being someone obsessed with rebuilding her noble house to being someone who is dedicated to the Sisterhood above all is a big part of the story. It’s not a girlhood coming-of-age narrative so much as a woman’s rise to power from a Harkonnen perspective.”

Dune Universe Expands This Fall

A third Dune film is in the works, but the next time audiences will experience its universe will be on the small screen. The latest HBO spinoff of a movie franchise, Dune: Prophecy is partially based on Sisterhood of Dune, a prequel book written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. However, Prophecy will be forging its own path, set ten thousand years before the events of the Dune movies and primarily following Valya Harkonnen as the main character. As Alison Schapker puts it, the book canon served as a blueprint for the television series, but new parts of the Dune timeline will be explored:

“I really believe that we found the best of both worlds when it comes to adaptation. Sisterhood of Dune was our seminal text that we were working with and drawing inspiration from. Our story is tethered to the events in that book, but we also are telling a story that takes place 30 years after the events of the book. So we have both the book to draw from, but we also have room to develop our characters and tell the story of Valya Harkonnen across multiple timelines.”

As the teaser revealed, Dune: Prophecy follows the origins of the Bene Gesserit through the lens of Valya and Tula Harkonnen, played by Emily Watson and Olivia Williams, respectively. The series also stars Travis Fimmel, Jodhi May, Mark Strong, Sarah Sofie Boussnina, Josh Heuston, Chloe Lea, Jade Anouka, Faoileann Cunningham, Edward Davis, Aoife Hinds, Chris Mason, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Camilla Beeput, Jihae Tabu, Charithra Chandran, Jessica Barden, Emma Canning and Yerin Ha.