"Ten thousand years before the birth of Paul Atreides... before the universe would know us as the Bene Gesserit... we founded a sisterhood... assigned to the Great Houses to help them sift truth from lies. We created a network of influence throughout the Imperium. But power comes with a price."
— Valya Harkonnen
Dune: Prophecy is a 2024 American Science Fiction series created by Diane Ademu-John and Alison Schapker and produced by Legendary Television. It is based on Frank Herbert's Dune series, more precisely Sisterhood of Dune by his son Brian Herbert, and it is set in the same continuity as Denis Villeneuve's Dune films.
The series focuses on the origins of the Bene Gesserit, an exclusive and powerful sisterhood who undergo intense physical training and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman abilities. It takes place 116 years after the events of the Butlerian Jihad (also known as the Great Machine Wars) and 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides.
The cast includes Emily Watson as Valya Harkonnen, Olivia Williams as Tula Harkonnen, Mark Strong as Emperor Javicco Corrino, Jodhi May as Empress Natalya, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina as Princess Ynez, Shalom Brune-Franklin as Mikaela and Travis Fimmel as Desmond Hart.
The series premiered on HBO and Max on November 17, 2024. It has been renewed for a second season.
Previews: Teaser 1
, Teaser 2, Trailer
Dune: Prophecy contains examples of:
- Action Girl:
- Princess Ynez is shown learning sword fighting in her first scene, and has been taught some basic Sisterhood combat techniques by Kasha.
- This seems to be an expectation of the Sisterhood; their training in martial arts can take place during grueling weather and they have to spar with one another on demand. Desmond Hart's proto-Sardaukar are shown to be no match for a single Sister, despite having personal shields.
- Aerith and Bob: Names like Jen and Mikaela coexist with names more common as surnames like Harrow, names that seem a step away from existing nomenclature like Pruwet, and more fantastical names like Javicco.
- Arranged Marriage:
- Princess Ynez Corrino is betrothed to Pruwet, Duke Richese's nine-year-old son, in exchange for a fleet of ships to use on Arrakis. She admits that she has the years before he comes of age to herself.
- Ynez's parents Javicco and Natalya were also betrothed for politics' sake (and orchestrated by the Sisterhood).
- Audible Sharpness: The Bene Gesserits' knives tend to make "shing" sounds when drawn or flourished.
- Ban on A.I.: There is a ban on any technology that could lead to a thinking machine, out of fear of a repeat of the Butlerian Jihad. Pruwet Richese possessing a small mechanical lizard capable of acting independently is looked upon with fear. The Sisterhood has secretly kept a functional AI in their catacombs, directing their Super Breeding Program towards its goal in a way human minds would never be able to do. Their unseen enemies also have access to nanovirus weapons and high-tech surgical robots which were used to modify Desmond Hart into a living weapon. Notably, the ban isn't as omnipresent as it is by Paul's time, with each episode of the first season including at least one thinking machine. This may indicate that the ban is law, but not yet full cultural practice.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Desmond Hart and Natalya-Arat Corrino are in league with each other due to their mutual hatred of the sisterhood. They betray the Emperor and reduce him to a puppet. They are also the ones who stand out most in a Black-and-Grey Morality where Dorotea possesses Lila and tears apart what Valya and Tula (and ultimately Raquella) built.
- Consummate Liar: As a corollary to being able to detect even the smallest of lies, the Sisterhood also trains to hide the physical signs of lying, such that even their own members would be hard-pressed to tell a lie from the truth. Tula is able to convincingly lie to Emeline even when she's attempting to read her, and Jen is at least a good enough liar that it takes heightened awareness to spot it.
- Create Your Own Villain: Desmond Hart is the son of Tula Harkonnen, who, as far as he knows, abandoned him
- Distant Prologue: The first scene of the series, depicting how Valya became Reverend Mother Superior, is set 30 years before the rest of the series. And even within that scene, there are flashbacks to the Great Machine Wars, which ended 116 years before the events of the series.
- Fictional Currency: The solari currency of the Imperium is mentioned several times, and even seen during the black market deal for an Ixian drone-bomb. This currency was also referred to on-screen in Villeneuve's Dune: Part One.
- Foregone Conclusion:
- Based on the canon, while the Sisterhood maintains a great influence throughout the empire and continued with its eugenic reproduction program, Valya's plan to put Ynez on the throne seems doomed to failure, as none of them were crowned empress and it seems that only men can inherit the throne. The question then becomes how the conflict between the Sisterhood and Desmond ends up being resolved, given how much trouble a wildcard like him could cause unchecked.
- Some of Desmond's reforms will stick, as he helps create what will become the Sardaukar, but ultimately his mission to destroy the Sisterhood is doomed to failure, as their influence is even stronger by the time of Paul Atreides.
- Great Offscreen War: The war against the Thinking Machines (referred to in the books as the "Butlerian Jihad"), which led to the annihilation of all computers and left a deep distrust and hate for such technology, to the point young Pruwet Richese is executed for simply having a small toy-like computerized robot in his possession.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: A staple of the Dune franchise. Some characters are more noble than others, but practically no-one doesn’t have at least a few skeletons in their closet and/or a not-wholly-justifiable body count. Characters might have worthy goals, but they're willing to resort to questionable, if not horrific, means to advance them. Arguments can be made for practically anyone to be the real hero, or the real villain, of the story.
- History Repeats:
- Tula demonstrates that the events of Dune (2021) are not the first time a Harkonnen orchestrated the near-annihilation of House Atreides.
- Also, it's revealed that, like Paul Atreides, Desmond Hart is secretly half-Harkonnen and half-Atreides, the son of Tula and Orry. She gave him up for adoption at birth.
- In the final episode, a male Atreides and a Bene Gesserit are hiding on Arrakis to escape from their political enemies, who have successfully eliminated most of their allies and seized their position, hoping to gain control of the Imperium.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: As the series progresses, it becomes clear that the current crisis is the direct result of Valya's and Tula's past bad actions. Valya schemed to weaken the emperor and make him dependent on the Sisterhood, but Desmond's unexpected intervention instead caused the weakened emperor to turn into a powerful ally aligned against the Sisterhood. Tula, in turn, is responsible for Desmond Hart's hatred of the Sisterhood because she is his mother and "abandoned" him as a newborn.
- Hotter and Sexier: Compared to the '20's Dune films, which kept to a PG-13 rating, Prophecy is clearly aiming at the Game of Thrones audience. While not nearly to that show's level of sex and nudity, in the first episode at the nightclub there's a woman at the bar in a completely sheer top and quite obviously nothing beneath it, in the second episode there's plot relevant sex scene between Duke Richese's daughter and Constantine as she plies him with drugs and sex to get information out of him, and in the third episode a flashback shows a romantic interlude between Tula and Orry, though that one's mostly PG-13 (lack of) nudity. While the books were never shy on the subject of sex (such as the infamous "adult beefswelling" line in Children of Dune), this might surprise some viewers coming from the chaster film adaptations.
- Living Lie Detector: The Sisterhood trains as Truthsayers, honing their senses to perceive micro-expressions that betray attempts to lie or mislead. This has made them a valuable asset among the Great Houses, as ulterior motives in negotiations are quickly rooted out and traitors have a hard time concealing their true intentions.
- Medieval Stasis: Enforced. Technology isn't that much different from what it is ten thousand years later, because the horrors of the wars against the Thinking Machines have driven a ban on most new technology and specifically on artificial intelligence. Even something as simple as a child's mechanical toy is looked upon with fear. Humanity shifted its focus from improving "technology" to improving human potential: developing advanced martial arts and mental training. One actually "new" thing shown is not a "technology", but a "skill" — after young Valya discovered and honed the Voice, that becomes a signature tool of the Bene Gesserit order through Paul's time. It's also clear that other Bene Gesserit abilities that will become common by Paul's time are still under development or have yet to be discovered.
- The Mole: Mikaela, the Fremen proprietor of the spice bar, is secretly a Sister controlling the Insurgency from the inside.
- N.G.O. Superpower: The Sisterhood has leveraged their trusted position as Truthsayers to create a network of influence throughout the Imperium, since a monopoly on the absolute truth means they effectively control who gets to lie and when, while their word is taken as truth because their reputation hinges on it. Valya intends to recruit Princess Ynez so that she may ascend to the throne, meaning that the sisterhood will effectively rule the galaxy behind the scenes. The conflict of the series is driven by Desmond recognizing their intent and using his new powers to undermine them.
- No Blood for Phlebotinum: As is always the case with Dune, the Emperor's stranglehold on the mining and distribution of Spice ensures his power. A nascent rebellion (secretly encouraged by the Sisterhood to keep the Emperor in check) seeks to break his grasp on Spice production.
- Out of Focus: Hardly any of the first season takes place on Dune/Arrakis itself; it mostly divides between the Imperial capital world Salusa Secundus and the Bene Gesserit headquarters on Wallach IX. The only exception is that episode 1.3 predominantly consists of extended flashbacks to Valya and Tula's youth on the old Harkonnen homeworld Lankiveil, plus a hunting trip on Caladan. Arrakis is still prominently mentioned, as much of the scheming revolves around who controls the spice production. Most of what we see of Arrakis actually on screen comes in the form of recorded video reports or dreams; the rebel attacks are only mentioned off screen, and as such the Fremen aren't given much focus yet either, though they're mentioned and one or two of them even appear off-world.
- Outside-Context Problem: Desmond Hart's pyrokinetic powers are something the Sisterhood has not encountered before, and he immediately becomes a Spanner in the Works by murdering Pruwet Richese and making it his goal to undermine the influence of the Bene Gesserit across the Imperium.
- Prequel in the Lost Age: The transition card after the Distant Prologue states that the series' events take place 116 years after the end of the Great Machine Wars and 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, the protagonist of the films.
- Signature Device: Members of the Sisterhood wield fold-out knives with a metal frame for the sheath, making the blade visible even when folded. Mikaela gives herself away as a member when she uses it in front of Kieran.
- Super Breeding Program: The show features the origins of the Bene Gesserit's eugenics program, which will eventually lead to the birth of Paul Atreides, showing that it was started by the Sisterhood's founder as a means of creating rulers who will be free from the corruption that weakens the Imperium as a whole.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Jessica Barden and Emma Canning play the younger versions of Valya and Tula Harkonnen in the prologue while Emily Watson and Olivia Williams play the older versions for the bulk of the the series proper.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: One follows Valya, who is manipulating the Emperor and his family, and the other follows Tula, who tries to reach out to the elders and decipher the anomaly that has possessed her son. When Tula travels to the Empire homeworld, the lines merge, but Dorotea brings down the sisterhood's AI and exposes Valya and Tula's hidden actions (including the whereabouts of Dorotea's followers). In the end, Valya accompanies Inez and Kieran to Arrakis to find who planted the AI on Desmond, Tula is arrested by Desmond—who discovers the familial connection between them—and the acolytes learn of the whole scheme.
- Written by the Winners: According to Valya, the "official record" that the Atreides led humanity to victory against the Thinking Machines while her great-grandfather deserted the fight is a lie. She does not elaborate as to how she knows this, however.note
"Sisterhood above all."
