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Emily Watson in Dune: Prophecy.
Photo: Attila Szvacsek/HBO
New York Comic Con’s getting spicy. For the first day of NYCC on Thursday, October 17, Warner Bros. rocked Dune-heads in attendance with a new, more in-depth look at Dune: Prophecy. In addition to a brand-new trailer, the afternoon panel also provided the show’s official premiere date on Max and HBO: November 17, 2024.
The new prequel spinoff from the Denis Villeneuve “Dune-iverse” is set 10,000 years before Timothée Chalamet’s rise to power. Dune: Prophecy traces the origins of the Bene Gesserit, the sisterhood of witches who play the really long game when it comes to amassing power and influence. The Harkonnens, who were the main villains of the films, also have a central role in the series.
The “day one” buzz worked its charm over the room, with Comic Con–goers filling the largest stage at the Javits Center with a chorus of cheers, woos, and claps. The trailer packs in all the trademarks of a typical HBO hit now: political intrigue, ambitious power players, gorgeous set designs, even steamy sex for good measure. (This is an HBO show, after all.) Take House of the Dragon and swap out the dragons for spaceships and hooded witches, and that’s basically Dune: Prophecy.
At the panel, series showrunner Alison Schapker elaborated on the show’s prequel setting — set in the aftermath of a war against artificial intelligence — and how it will stand apart from the Villeneuve movies. “We’re in the shadow of the wars humans have fought against thinking machines,” Schapker explained. “We’re on the other side of the rise of artificial intelligence. It’s a time of great rebuilding.”
Schapker added the Imperium is in its earlier years, describing the political landscape of Dune: Prophecy as “a neo-feudal society.” At the center, of course, is the Sisterhood, which Schapker said “will become the Bene Gesserit.”
Dune: Prophecy is a sci-fi that’s “post-technology,” with AI and other similar cutting-edge tech fully outlawed. That doesn’t mean the tech is gone, however, but it does inform a specific kind of world-building unlike other typical sci-fi. Series star Emily Watson, who plays leader of the Bene Gesserit named Valya Harkonnen, joked that if anyone in the audience whipped out their smartphone, that would invite death from the Bene Gesserit. Fear is the mind killer, but so is doomscrolling.
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