Frank Herbert’s sandy lore is returning to the screens once again through Dune: Prophecy and the buzz surrounding it couldn’t be stronger. After the majestic success of Denis Villeneuve’s film series based on Herbert’s novel series of the same name, the hype around the saga is still as strong as ever, and fans are hoping for nothing but the best.
That being said, there is one interesting element about this upcoming series that is good news for fans: The fact that the show will be adapting one major arc from the novels about the Imperium. What makes this all the more worth waiting for is that this arc wouldn’t be as minutely adapted as Villeneuve’s saga did and would explore it more widely.
Dune: Prophecy Will Further Explore the Imperium Arc
Recently, an additional trailer for Prophecy made its way to the internet, and it was mostly good news for the fans. Not only did it focus on the secretive coven of powerful women called the Bene Gesserit, but it also promised to give a lot more attention to the Imperium than was explored in Denis Villeneuve‘s film series.
In the teaser, Mark Strong is shown as Emperor Javicco Corrino. While his character hasn’t actually appeared in any of the books, it has been talked about in Sisterhood of Dune and other post-Frank Herbert books that will inspire the saga.
At the same time, his predecessor Salvador Corrino played a major role in the books by maintaining the peace in the Imperium and contributing significantly to it, like co-founding the Spacing Guild. That said, it can be understood that the Imperium will be one of the most important arcs in the show.
As can be understood from the teaser, Mark Strong‘s character will be shown as one of the key characters in Prophecy and will be playing a prominent role in managing the government with his plans. However, he will evidently be faced with a lot of problems since he needs to affirm with several factions, including the Bene Gesserit.
Additionally, the teaser also put due emphasis on Javicco’s wife Jodhi May’s Empress Natalya, whose marriage with Strong’s character helped strengthen the political situation by connecting multiple other worlds and empires to it. That said, she is obviously one of the pivotal elements of the Imperium’s safety.
All of this being put out there, it becomes clear that the upcoming series will definitely be exploring more of the Imperium than was seen in Villeneuve’s film series, which didn’t feature more than infrequent appearances from Christopher Walken‘s Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV maintaining the government.
What Can Fans Expect to See in Dune: Prophecy?
Besides promising to explore this one arc further, the upcoming Prophecy series will also bring about a lot of other previously unexplored characters. For instance, it will be showing Josh Heuston as the Emperor’s illegitimate son Constantine Corrino joining this critical political situation.
Moreover, this series has been inspired by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s Sisterhood of Dune, and its official description reads:
10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides, Prophecy follows two Harkonnen sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect that will become known as the Bene Gesserit.
Tamed by Diane Ademu-John, this saga will be bringing to life the prequel events of what has been seen in the Timothée Chalamet starrer film series through six episodes, and will, hopefully, be a worthwhile experience.
Watch the latest teaser for the series here:
Dune: Prophecy will be debuting on HBO and Max in November 2024.
