Dune: Prophecy will be grander and explore vast lands beyond Arrakis

Get ready to get sucked into the ever-expanding franchise of Dune. Dune: Prophecy is a six-part prequel series of the Dune films starring Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet. The Prophecy series will stretch far beyond the deserts of the planet Arrakis.

The makers reveal that Dune Prophecy will take place in “totally different environments” and time periods, according to executive producer Alison Schapker.

Alison told CNN that the show expands the “Dune” universe in a way that feels cohesive to both the Frank Herbert source material and the movies that came before it.

“It exists in a world that matters to people and I think we wanted to respect that.”

Alison revealed that they had “total freedom” when it came to setting up these new interstellar locales, but they worked hard to apply the same aesthetic standards set by the films so that it feels like the show “can exist in the universe that Denis so gorgeously put on the screen.”

Dune: Prophecy Plot

Dune: Prophecy takes place 10,000 years before the events seen in Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 1 and Dune: Part 2 movies. The films are based on Herbert’s famed 1965 novel of the same name – and tell the origin story of the Bene Gesserit, a powerful group of women trained to harness special abilities of the mind and body.

Inspired by the Schools of Dune book trilogy written by Kevin J. Anderson and Frank Herbert’s son Brian Herbert, Prophecy follows sisters Valya and Tula Harkonnen, who take on the “forces that threaten the future of humankind and establish the fabled sect that will become known as the Bene Gesserit,” according to an official synopsis.

The series will also showcase worlds like Wallach IX, where the sisterhood that Valya (Emily Watson) and Tula (Olivia Williams) oversee has its institutional base, and Lankiveil, an icy and forbidding planet where the Harkonnens were banished to during this period in the story’s history.

“I loved that we were allowed to be grown-up sci-fi,” Schapker said. “It really was very fun to allow our characters to have three-dimensional humanity to them, including their sexuality, and that the show can allow people to go and depict the spicier moments.”