Dune: Prophecy kicks off with a narratively choppy premiere

There is so much Dune mythology out there that it can be overwhelming to even scratch its surface. Most people know the basics of Frank Herbert’s wildly influential 1965 novel either through the source, David Lynch’s crazy 1984 film, or the films that Denis Villeneuve recently released to massive acclaim. (Maybe there are a couple who learned about this universe through the largely forgotten 2000 miniseries, but I doubt it.) Anyway, that’s truly just the start of this world in which Herbert himself concocted five sequels before his son, Brian Herbert, took the throne and spit out two more based on his dad’s notes. And that was just the start. 

So it makes sense that in an era of prequels like House Of The Dragon and The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power that Warner Bros. would reach into this deep mythology looking for more stories to tell. After their journey to Arrakis, the power brokers at WBD have emerged with Dune: Prophecy, a story set thousands of years before Timothée Chalamet would mope across a sandy planet in the Dune films. The premiere makes it clear that the creators are seeking some of that GOT spice, telling another story of power players vying for control that’s built on a foundation of film-quality art direction, effects, cinematography, and costume design. Whether or not they grab hold of what they’re reaching for is a different question.

Very loosely based on the 2012 novel Sisterhood Of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, Dune: Prophecy is about the behind-the-scenes machinations that really determine power. There’s a reason the premiere is called “The Hidden Hand,” which primarily refers to the control that the Sisterhood commands over those who are making the decisions that impact the fate of the universe. It opens with a prologue that reveals the lengths that a young Valya Harkonnen (Jessica Barden) will go to ensure her vision of the future, using her “Voice” to command her rival to die by suicide. “A new skill I’ve been honing” is putting it lightly.

Jump forward three decades. It’s been more than a century since the great war that man fought against the thinking machines that tried to destroy them, leading to a ban on all such devices, at least at the capital. (This will be important later.) And yet it’s also 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides. It’s almost disconcerting to watch a show that’s essentially suggesting that the same political and personal battles will rage across the universe for more than 10 millennia but that also seems depressingly accurate if you think about the last decade in this one. 

An older Valya (Emily Watson) is now the Mother Superior of the Sisterhood, working alongside her sister Tula (Olivia Williams) to choose the right Truthsayer from her students to serve alongside the rising star Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), who is to be wed to a very young man named Pruwet Richese (Charlie Hodson-Prior) in an effort to align political powers and build a fleet of ships to mine Spice on Arrakis for Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong). Javicco’s wife, Empress Natalya (Jodhi May), doesn’t love the union, but “Nez” seems surprisingly cool with it, understanding that it helps her ascent to power, and she’s willing to go out and have a little fun on the side with Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason). 

There are other key players introduced in this narratively choppy episode. The most important is probably Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), a soldier who has survived 12 tours on the battle-strewn Arrakis while most of his peers don’t make it back from one. Fimmel plays him as a deeply traumatized man, but he sometimes feels like he’s on another show, like in a scene between him and Strong’s Corrino in which he warns of the insidious betrayals that could come from within, especially after young Pruwet had the nerve to bring a “thinking machine” to his engagement party. The premiere also introduces a few of Valya and Tula’s students, including the feisty Jen (Faoileann Cunningham), traditional Emeline (Aoife Hinds), and emotional Lila (Chloe Lea). Finally, there’s the engaging Kasha (Jihae), the Truthsayer to the Emperor who has visions of a violent future that crashes down on her in the final scenes.

Naturally, “The Hidden Hand” is mostly about introductions. So what do we learn about these characters and the story that’s going to unfold in Dune: Prophecy? There are a great number of lines about political power, including the opening crawl that states “Victory is celebrated in the light, but it is won in the darkness.” This show, at least at the start, is all about the darkness in which plans for victory are being put in motion. The engagement party is in the light; the fleet of fighters that comes with the hand of a princess are bartered in darkness.

It’s also clearly setting a stage for an examination of themes familiar to fans of the core Dune properties, including planning versus prophecy. Is there such a thing as free will in a world in which sisters like Valya and Kasha are having visions of what’s to come? The prologue sets up a battle between a conservative view of the Sisterhood in which they watch and advise more than control and a progressive one in which they pull the strings.

The best scene in the premiere is between arguably the show’s two best performers as Valya and Tula discuss who to push as Truthsayer for Nez. They need a key advisor who they know will whisper what they want into the ear of power. And it’s great to watch two excellent actors riff on both plot and subtext, foreshadowing different approaches that will surely divide them.

The key plot turns in “The Hidden Hand” come late in a pair of violent deaths. Desmond finds Pruwet in the hall, playing with his forbidden toy again, and does something magically horrible to him. What happened to Desmond on Arrakis? “To win a war requires a sacrifice,” he says. And suddenly the kid is in excruciating pain, burning alive where he sits. At the same time, Kasha appears to be going through the same thing back at the Sisterhood. Valya finds her and the camera cuts to her eyes. “I see, mother,” she says. “I see.”

The big question, of course, is will anyone care? The problem with so many of these GOT followups is that they mistakenly believe that people loved that show for its production value. Someone clearly spent a fortune on Dune: Prophecy, but they need to remember that it was the characters of Game Of Thrones that made it a hit. Will people care about Valya, Tula, and Nez like they did Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Tyrion Lannister? For that matter, will they care about them like they do Paul Atreides from the movies? It’s too soon to tell, but there are reasons to be concerned. The premiere of Dune: Prophecy lacks the ingenuity and spark of another recent WBD spin-off like The Penguin, feeling both familiar and slight at the same time, despite the clear boatloads of money poured into it. There’s something missing here that it might find shortly, or it could be a long six episodes of political wheel-spinning and terrifying visions. Let’s hope it finds that spice soon.

Stray observations

• • This episode was directed by Anna Foerster, which might be a bit telling. While she’s worked on good shows like Westworld and Jessica Jones, she also directed the largely forgotten Underworld: Blood Wars after years of being in the photography units for a number of Roland Emmerich films like 10,000 BC and 2012. No offense to those films (some of which I enjoy more than most), but they’re largely spectacle over substance. Likewise, much of this show looks great but lacks the depth to really be remembered.
• • On that note, the main setting of this episode is the center of power on Salusa Secundus, a planet that has been seen in the films when Piter de Vries went there to meet with the Sardaukar. It looks cool! Let’s hope some of it can be explored outside of the capital. If the show is gonna just be eye candy, let’s make it sweet.
• • Isn’t it weird to set a show 10,000-plus years before what most fans know of this universe and have it look and feel so familiar? Even the score feels like a cover of the movies at times, which is obviously designed to subconsciously connect this to something people love. But the reason people like shows like The Penguin is how it expands on a universe, not how it recreates it.
• • If anything is going to hold this together, it’s the cast. So, every recap, I’ll highlight an underrated performance from one of them. Let’s start with the wonderful Olivia Williams, who should have been Oscar nominated for Rushmore and probably even The Sixth Sense. She was on a great tear in the late ‘00s and early ‘10s. Seek out her work in The Ghost Writer if you can, which won her the National Society Of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress.