Dune: Prophecy finally materializes in first official teaser

The Bene Gesserit saw the new trailers for House Of The Dragon and Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power yesterday, and said, “don’t forget who’s really in charge here.” While Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation may have received one of the faster prequel turnarounds in recent memory, it’s certainly earned the right to stand among its Elven and Westerosi brethren with Dune: Prophecy.

The upcoming Max original series dropped its first teaser today, and based on just this short clip, it looks almost as lush and fully realized as Villeneuve’s original vision. “10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, before the universe would know us as the Bene Gesserit, we founded a sisterhood,” a voice-over narrates. “We created a network of influence throughout the Imperium, but power comes with a price.”

Dune fans will immediately recognize the Bene Gesserit as the formidable but fascinating order that holds almost all the cards in Frank Herbert’s original series. In Dune: Part One, we learn that the sisterhood has been working for centuries to cross bloodlines and carefully plant local legends across the universe so that one day, the people might accept an all-powerful messiah the order could secretly control from the shadows. In Dune: Part Two, we watch both the catastrophic realization and dissolution of that effort. In Dune: Prophecy, we presumably see its origin.

What fans may not know is that this series experienced almost as many false starts as the search for the Kwisatz Haderach itself. Originally titled Dune: The Sisterhood, the project lost both its showrunner and several stars before churning along under the direction of showrunner Alison Schapker (Fringe). Villeneuve himself was even supposed to direct the series’ pilot episode before scaling back his involvement to focus on the films. Last year, you would have had to drink the Water Of Life yourself to believe this series had a fraction of a chance of actually making it to air. Now that day has arrived, and the visuals at least look exactly as they should. Never bet against the Bene Gesserit!

Dune: Prophecy stars Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel, Jodhi May, Mark Strong, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Josh Heuston, Chloe Lea, Jade Anouka, Faoileann Cunningham, Edward Davis, Aoife Hinds, Chris Mason, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Jihae, Tabu, Charithra Chandran, Jessica Barden, Emma Canning, and Yerin Ha. The series will be available to stream sometime this fall.