After the huge success of both of Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies, HBO has managed quite a coup by securing the rights to a prequel series, and Dune: Prophecy is finally imminent, now. The series will start on 17 November, and recently got the proper trailer treatment.
This look at the high-budget, high-concept series gives us a glimpse of the massive power struggles that it'll throw into the spotlight, and makes it clear that it'll have some epic moments to rival those films.
Prophecy is based on Sisterhood of Dune, one of the many novels that have been spun out of the Dune series in the years since it first debuted. Since Frank Herbert has been dead for quite some time, the universe he created has been being expanded by his son Brian Herbert in recent yers.
Sisterhood of Dune released in 2012, and acts as a sort of origin story for the Bene Gesserit, the order of (basically) mystical space witches that are watching their ages-long plan come to fruition by the time the Dune movies start. They're seeking to orchestrate a new age for humanity, but in the timeline that Prophecy will establish, they're far from secure in their power.
With the Emperor (played by Mark Strong) clearly feeling that he is threatened by other great houses on all sides, and control over the spice world Arrakis still a central question, we're thinking there might be some Game of Thrones-esque political intrigue to enjoy. That'll clearly be at least somewhat interspersed with action, though.
As the plot we've tried to summarise here makes clear, though, this is an inescapably complicated setup for a series. Villeneuve's movies had to simplify quite a lot to make Dune legible on-screen, and it'll be fascinating to see how a longer-form series approaches that same problem of obscure lore and exposition.
At least the success of those movies means, Dune: Prophecy should have a fairly keen core audience ready when it arrives in a few weeks. It could very well help to reestablish HBO (and its platform Max) as the best streaming service for prestige dramas, too.
