Dune: Prophecy: How Prequel Series Will Transform Dune Movies
Though Dune: Prophecy by HBO is set 10,000 years before the events of Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two, the series will surely affect how viewers see a significant Dune character in the films. Designed by Diane Ademu-John (The Haunting of Bly Manor), the sci-fi prelude will center on a period of dramatic transition. Dune: Prophecy will take place in the immediate aftermath of the Butlerian Jihad, a decades-long campaign against computers, thinking machines, and robots that changed the Known Universe based on what is currently known about Dune's chronology.
The Aftermath of the Butlerian Jihad
Following two generations of bloodshed, the so-called Great Revolt came to an end with all intelligent machines totally destroyed all around the Known Universe. Supported by the belief that humans should not be replaced, the resultant Orange Catholic Bible—an assembly of many religious writings—put forward a crucial commandment: "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind." Said another way, Dune: Prophecy's cast of characters will handle the aftermath of the Crusade. Apparently superhuman orders like the Bene Gesserit emerged to fill the new power vacuum of the Known Universe without thinking machines.
Dune: Prophecy Will Illuminate the Bene Gesserit More
Dune: The account of Prophecy will mostly center on the Bene Gesserit order's founding. Establishing the Bene Gesserit sect, sisters Valya (Emily Watson) and Tula (Olivia Williams) Harkonnen fight the forces endangering mankind's future roughly 10,000 years before the events of the Dune movies. Like other groups in Dune, the sisterhood's members go through rigorous physical and psychological training to acquire superhuman skills that would seem to outsiders to be witchcraft. From the weirding way martial art and The Voice to truthsaying and the mental multitasking known as simulflow, the Bene Gesserit's talents help guide mankind's trajectory.
Bene Gesserit: Using Indirect Authority
Like members of the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit acolytes use these improved physical and mental capacities to cover a void left by thinking machines. That means doing difficult computations for the Guild during interstellar travel, but for the Bene Gesserit it means grabbing power via indirect means. As portrayed in the films, the Bene Gesserit breeding program is a centuries-long plan meant to produce Dune's Kwisatz Haderach — a male Bene Gesserit superbeing. Given the title of the HBO series, Dune: Prophecy will probably question the very beginnings of the long-game mission of the Bene Gesserit.
Dune: Prophecy's Bene Gesserit Focus Will Make Lady Jessica's Story More Fascinating
Rebecca Ferguson's Lady Jessica isn't in Dune: Prophecy, but the HBO series will reinterpret her part in the Dune movies. Lady Jessica, a Bene Gesserit agent, is the daughter of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), concubine of Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), and, naturally, mother of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). Lady Jessica was assigned by the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) to bear Duke Leto a daughter; she also had a direct relationship to Dune: Prophecy's Harkonnen sisters. Lady Jessica, however, challenges the directions of the order by subverting their plan.
Defiance of Lady Jessica and the Origin of the Kwisatz Haderach
Inspired by her love of Leto, Lady Jessica chooses the sex of her fetus using her Bene Gesserit internal organic-chemical control capacity. She finally bears a son, Paul, the heir Leto had desired. Lady Jessica delivers the Kwisatz Haderach, sometimes known as Lisan al Gaib by the Fremen, a generation early by straying from the carefully chosen breeding program. Paul and Jessica, who turns into a Reverend Mother, find themselves directly in opposition to the hierarchy by this action. Apart from responding to Bene Gesserit-related inquiries, Dune: Prophecy can restiter the significance of Lady Jessica's disobedience.
How Dune: Prophecy Might Link to Dune 3 Story for Lady Jessica
Fascinatingly, Lady Jessica doesn't feature in Herbert's original Dune Messiah sequel. Although it's not yet clear whether Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Three will also borrow ideas from Herbert's third book, Children of Dune, the next film in the series will most certainly adapt Dune Messiah. Dune 3 will probably see Paul Atreides ruling as Emperor of the Known Universe set 12 years after Dune 2's ending since his fervent Fremen allies keep waging a bloody holy war under his name. It's difficult to see Villeneuve following the source material where Lady Jessica's absence is concerned.
Lady Jessica, Alia, and Dune: Prophecy—connecting the dots
Not only can Dune: Prophecy set up a better Dune 3, but it can also guide Jessica's narrative's course. Lady Jessica drinks the Water of Life in Dune 2 and turns the poison into a Reverend Mother. For her unborn daughter Alia (Anya Taylor-Joy), this change has unanticipated effects though. Alia's birth circumstances in Children of Dune expose her to outside forces, which pulls her mother back into the conflict. Dune: Prophecy could hint to Lady Jessica and Alia's Dune 3 narrative, so providing her with a whole story arc.
Dune: Prophecy will first show on HBO and Max in November 2024; Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two are both streaming on Max.
