Roughly a week after Dune actor David Dastmalchian lauded the “fearless” Denis Villeneuve for “honoring the spirit” of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi series with his upcoming, two-part adaptation of its first book, Villeneuve has revealed that a spin-off series is currently in the works.
Variety reports that Dune: The Sisterhood has been given a straight-to-series order on WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service. Per Variety, the series will view “the world of the book through the eyes of a mysterious order of women known as the Bene Gesserit.” It continues, “Given extraordinary abilities by their mastery of the body and the mind, the Bene Gesserit expertly weave through the feudal politics and intrigue of The Imperium, pursuing plans of their own that will ultimately lead them to the enigmatic planet Arrakis, known to its inhabitants as Dune.” The Bene Gesserit play a major role in the series, making it possible that there could be overlap, in terms of cast and story, between the events of the films and this series.
Villeneuve will direct the pilot, which will be written by reboot co-writer Jon Spaihts. Legendary, the same studio behind Villeneuve’s films, will produce the series alongside current shepherds of the Dune series, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, as well as Byron Merritt and Kim Herbert. As Deadline puts it, the project is part of Legendary’s “comprehensive plans for Dune which also include video games, digital content packages, and comic book series.”
“The Bene Gesserit have always been fascinating to me,” Villeneuve said in a statement. “Focusing a series around that powerful order of women seemed not only relevant and inspiring but a dynamic setting for the television series.”
There’s no word on when the series will premiere, but the first Dune film will hit theaters on November 20, 2020. Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, and Dave Bautista lead the all-star cast.