Are we ready for the Dune: Prophecy craze? Well, I am. More than ready and happy because I will be watching the second season of Silo in parallel. I, who have never been particularly a fan of Sci-Fi or Fantasy, find it strange, but I am very excited. There is a lot to expect from this prequel, especially since after decades of being considered impossible to adapt to the cinema, Dune is now one of the great successes. The prequel of the trilogy comes at a good time, and better yet, with a great cast!

In the last few weeks, leading up to the premiere at the end of November, the stars of the series participated in a series of interviews and events, so we can gather some revelations, even if they are not huge.

Announced in 2019, due to purists who complained about Denis Villeneuve‘s adaptation, the news was received lukewarmly and suspiciously at best. In addition to changing its name (it was Dune Sisterhood at the beginning), it lost two actresses, in just five years Dune: Prophecy also had four showrunners and three main directors, in addition to dealing with the pandemic and two strikes that brought Hollywood to a standstill. The luck lies in Villeneuve’s two films, who was even going to direct the pilot but dropped out. That’s because now Dune is on the rise and the team can use the same sets, thus maintaining visual unity (extremely important).

Forgive me, purists, but the number of people who have never read a page of the universe imagined by Frank Herbert or even the books that followed the story is infinitely greater than those who know the history of the Artreides or Harkonnens in depth. This is excellent for the series because there is no way to demand changes with the same intensity that the showrunners of House of the Dragon receive.

At events like NY ComiCon and in interviews, the main trio has been formed by actresses Olivia Williams, Emily Watson, and Travis Fimmel, who seemed discouraged because they couldn’t reveal so much about the plot. Set 10,000 years before Villeneuve’s films and inspired mostly by the book Sisterhood of Dune, written by Herbert’s son, Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson, the idea is to tell the origin of the female religious order known as the Bene Gesserit, which has a secret plan to control the intergalactic empire from behind the scenes. And of course, the timeline will make clearer the reason for the deep rivalry between the Harkonnens (seen as the villains so far) and the Atreides (the good guys). This mutual hatred goes back millennia and will possibly have another perspective when we see the series.

10,000 years ago, we were even closer to the end of the war between humans and machines, something that also marked the story of Dune. The war ended with human victory and the banning of advanced computers, robots, and artificial intelligence. Obviously, behind the scenes, some still use technology and it is something that Travis Fimmel, as Desmond Hart, will be against. It reminds me of his time in Raised by Wolves, but I suspect that Dune: Prophecy will not turn anyone into a tree or have snakes flying around, so it will have a future. Returning to Fimmel, Hart will play a soldier with a mysterious past involving a rather life-changing encounter with a sandworm, who will gain the trust of the Emperor.

“He’s looking for someone really important to him, he has a personal grudge against this person,” Travis explained in an interview. As a soldier and having served eight tours on Arrakis, the problem is not even war trauma, but something deeper. “I’m sure it affected him [the eight times he was fighting on the planet], but it’s always the things from his childhood that make his journey more interesting, so there are a lot of things that happened to him when he was a kid that he really searches for. Obviously, a lot of people go to battle sometimes when they’re fighting their own demons,” he added.

And since Desmond is an unfamiliar but telling name, the actor teases: “There are so many players who are all pursuing very similar goals in their own right and my character will do anything – if he has to lie or cheat or whatever – he’ll do anything to get what he came for, and make everyone believe him and I don’t think until the end you know which side he’s really on,” he gives us the hint.

On the female side, as Valya Harkonnen, the leader of the Bene Gessrit sisterhood, Emily Watson will be the big star of the series and promises great scenes. With flashbacks to her youth, we’ll understand how she plans to avenge the Harkonnens, who lost prestige and power thanks to the Artreides. Olivia Williams will play her sister, Tula, who should be the protagonist of some surprises.

“The Harkonnens are a very, very confusing family, from the beginning,” Emily said at ComiCon. “Valya and Tula Harkonnen had a very traumatic childhood, all of this comes out as the story progresses, and yet they set out on this path to try to control the destiny of humanity. It seems like they are empowering themselves. There are no limits to what they won’t do to do this,” he revealed.

And as Travis warns: “Every character has flaws, every character is very driven and motivated to get what they think they deserve. Everyone thinks they’re right when, a lot of times, everyone thinks they’re wrong,” he says. “It makes you think.”

At a Comicon panel, where journalists watched two episodes, the cast had to choose their favorite episode of the season. Travis and Olivia chose the 6th, Emily chose the surprise of the 3rd (“There’s something really, really disturbing,” she warned) and screenwriter Jordan Goldberg also teases about Travis: “When you see him in episode 4, which is my favorite, he does some outrageous things, so it’s really good!”.

Curious, thank goodness there’s only a week left! November 17th, at 11pm.

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