Dune: Prophecy ended its first season with an epic, 80-minute episode that didn’t wrap up any of its storylines, including its central mystery about who or what is using forbidden technology to create biological weapons on Arrakis. So it’s good that the HBO series, a prequel set 10,000 years before the Denis Villeneuve films, will return in the future.
At the press conference scheduled for the end of the first season, “The Enemy with the Superior Hand,” Dune: ProphecyCreator and executive producer Alison Schapker, along with stars Emily Watson (Valya Harkonnen) and Olivia Williams (Tula Harkonnen), talked a lot about the first season—but teased less about what’s to come.
Speaking about how the series paced itself in six episodes, considering the scope and number of characters, Schapker said the team stuck to one rule: “giving each episode its own identity.”
But at the same time, he added, it was important to “feel like things have changed and that the characters did something that changed the story going forward.” And it was very important to always understand Valya’s line and Desmond’s story and Tula’s story. I would say they were our main characters. But it was a matter of trying to introduce everyone—and it’s a big world and a crowded world. So it was a balancing act. But I’m very happy with the way the six episodes have built up and come to a climax.”
Regarding where he wanted to leave things at the end of the first season, Schapker said, “I wanted to feel like the world had really changed at the end of the season, but at the same time we would have revelations that would make us understand these characters and their strengths in a different way, and that there would be a kind of re-contextualization of the story.” So that when you watch the whole story, you’ll understand, ‘Oh, there was a lot more going on than I first realized’, which I think is in line with the way Sisterhood works – the idea that there are plans within plans, that there’s more to the story than meets the eye. By the end of the first season, I think you already know the history of the [the Harkonnen] sisters, the history of Sisterhood, then the real revelation, the truth coming out. And that was important to me, that important change in dynamics. “
Asked about the state of mind of their characters at the end of the first season, both Watson and Williams reflected.
“I think about everything [has changed between them],” Watson said. “But I think Valya is still holding on [her idea that] ‘I am the chosen one. I have an end.’ [That’s still] his guide in this. But I would really like to know what happens next.”
Williams added, “I think the biggest thing for Tula is the time there [she says] ‘Please don’t kill my son. Trust me, I’ve got this.’ And the fact that [Valya] you trust me again [leaves her with Desmond]Little did I know that after that my son arrested me—[it’s] that moment between the sisters when Tula was finally entrusted with something, when all these years she was known to be very talented and very efficient and was treated like a little sister. Sometimes people of that character like to stay in the shadows, and it will be interesting to see what happens when he is pushed forward and if he can stand up for it.”
Schapker builds on that. “I like that idea of what you’re saying: in some ways sisters are interchangeable [places] in the sense that Valya is retreating from the shadows, and Tula just came out of the capital, and what that will mean for them going forward,” he said. “But I also think like any secret that comes out, if you keep it for a long time, the pain around it needs to be changed… they make you rethink your relationship going back over the years like, how did I miss something?”
Watson added, “I think it’s also a humbling moment because everything [my character has] what is done is based on my leadership, my sense of truth. But somehow, Valya does not do humiliation. It’s like ‘I’m not going to get emotional and I’m not nervous, so I’m going to keep going.’
Asked the biggest question that probably remains after the first season—who caused Desmond’s transformation?—Schapker remains vague on any potential season two spoilers. “[If you] if you look back at the first season, there are clues about who Desmond is and his strength and where it comes from,” he said. “About a kind of shadowy figures [seen controlling his fate in his visions]I think that remains to be seen in the future. But, we’re trying to see it—I don’t know if people notice, but the cloth that he’s carrying is the first time we see him, when Desmond Hart comes and greets and goes up to the palace, he’s got this black cloth. That’s really his mother’s sign, too [it reappears] throughout the series. You use it in private situations like a [way to keep] the living form of his drive and his communication. He finally meets her and grabs her real dress, and sees what used to be a piece of her baby dress that she wrapped around him. [is[ Sisterhood cloth that he’s held on to. And now he’s finally with his mother. I mean, we tried to do things like that to kind of build in and foreshadow where the story was going.”
Ok, but what about the second biggest question: what’s going to happen now that Valya Harkonnen, Keiran Atreides, and Princess Ynez are on Arrakis? Here’s Schapker with, as expected, some hints but not many details.
“After a season of Arrakis kind of exerting its pull from afar—whether that’s in the economics of the spice trade, or the psychological aspects of the visions and nightmares that are sort of imagery of Arrakis and Desmond’s path seeping into everyone’s consciousness—[it was our chance] to put the boots to the ground in this incredibly over-cut and almost legendary A mound It’s a space we know well, but we’ve kept it at bay all season. I think it’s very important that Valya is back there, and back in Desmond’s place, where she came out with a story and a legend: ‘I came from Arrakis and I was swallowed by a worm And I survived after me. the whole army was killed.’ All I can say is that I think Valya is going to get a lot since that’s where Desmond comes in as an enemy, and it’s going to be interesting to see what she gets there.”
Indeed it will be! You can watch Dune: Prophecy first season on HBO and Max; the second season is coming but it doesn’t have a release date yet.
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