Warning: this text accommodates some spoilers for the primary episode of Dune: Prophecy. You can try IGN’s spoiler-free assessment of the primary 4 episodes.
By all rights, the debut of Dune: Prophecy on HBO must be an thrilling solution to cap off 2024. Director Denis Villeneuve’s two Dune films stand as among the finest sci-fi movies of the final decade, and are very worthy diversifications of the beloved supply materials. Who wouldn’t salivate on the prospect of spending extra time in that universe?
But nonetheless nice Dune: Prophecy might sound on paper, in actuality the sequence is shaping as much as be a surprisingly bland and downright boring spinoff of the flicks. It’s a prequel that fails to make a powerful case for its personal existence. Let’s break down what went incorrect and why Prophecy in all probability picked the incorrect story to inform within the first place.
Dune: Prophecy’s Opening Flashback
Dune: Prophecy’s pilot episode is definitely at its most compelling proper on the very starting. The sequence is itself a flashback to a interval some 10,000 years earlier than the Dune films, nevertheless it opens with a sequence set a number of hundred years earlier, throughout a battle often called the Butlerian Jihad. One of probably the most vital wars within the Dune universe, the Butlerian Jihad was a titanic conflict between mankind and the synthetic intelligence on which it had turn out to be so deeply dependent. Not in contrast to the wars seen in franchises like The Matrix and Terminator, humanity within the Dune universe needed to conquer its machine oppressors and reclaim its independence.
The Butlerian Jihad is a captivating battle, and one writer Frank Herbert solely alluded to in his varied Dune novels. It’s a conflict that formed humanity for hundreds of years to return, explaining why know-how on this far-flung futuristic universe is so oddly primitive and simplistic. In the absence of superior computer systems, people needed to depend on spice to turn out to be computer systems themselves. It’s additionally the conflict that birthed the all-important feud between the Atreides and Harkonnen households.
With all of that in thoughts, it’s sufficient to marvel why HBO didn’t focus their Dune prequel on the Butlerian Jihad itself. It would have been such fruitful floor for a prequel spinoff, giving film followers a lot larger perception into how this sci-fi universe got here to be and why the hatred between the Atreides and Harkonnens has remained so potent for therefore lengthy. Instead, Prophecy glosses over that materials within the span of a few minutes, leaping forward two centuries to when humanity is recovering and the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood is starting to consolidate its grip on the galaxy.
In a approach, this opening sequence is paying homage to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. That sequence’ first episode additionally opens with a flashback to an historic battle in Middle-earth, the unique conflict with Morgoth. But no less than in The Rings of Power’s case, the present pivots to an equally compelling storyline involving Morgoth’s former lackey Sauron. Dune: Prophecy fails to make that very same pivot. It glosses over the Butlerian Jihad solely to reach at one thing far smaller and fewer fascinating.
How Prophecy Makes Dune Feel Small
Frankly, that is an space of the Dune timeline that simply isn’t as compelling. The Bene Gesserit are an integral a part of the Dune mythology, to make sure, however what does the sequence premiere actually add to this reclusive coven of house witches that we don’t get from the flicks? Sure, we get a way of the tough coaching the sisters should bear on their paths to changing into Reverend Mothers. But aside from that, the sequence hits on the identical materials we’ve already seen, with Emily Watson’s Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen obsessing over her treasured genetic archive and pulling the strings of the newly solid Imperium.
The drawback is that the Dune universe as seen in Prophecy has already turn out to be just about equivalent to the one seen within the films. Humanity has turned to spice to kind the spine of its new intergalactic economic system and its system of house journey. A Corrino sits on the Imperial throne. The Atreides and Harkonnen households are locked in a lethal feud. Arrakis is the supply of immense wealth and unimaginable peril. It all highlights simply how little is fated to alter over the subsequent 10,000 years.
What precisely is the purpose of a prequel the place all of the items are already organized in recognizable order? How is Dune: Prophecy meant to shock or shock us? What room is there for drama when it appears this universe is simply going by means of the motions for the subsequent 100 centuries? Whatever minor setbacks the Sisterhood might expertise over the course of this sequence, we all know the place all of that is main. They’ll have their Kwisatz Haderach finally. It’s all only a ready recreation.
As Charlotte Rampling’s Reverend Mother Mohiam mentioned within the first Dune film, “Our plans are measured in centuries.” So what’s the purpose of choosing a selected and really early level within the historical past of the Sisterhood and parking the story there? If something, a sequence in regards to the Bene Gesserit must be extra like Foundation – one prepared to take nice leaps ahead within the timeline to hint the battle over an excellent span of time.
It’s one cause Dune: Prophecy simply feels small and insignificant in comparison with the movies. The Dune films depict the endpoint of hundreds of years of planning and turmoil. The sequence merely explores the earliest origins of that unrest. The forged of characters is small, and lots of appear to recycle acquainted archetypes from the flicks. Once once more, we’re coping with an eclectic assortment of Bene Gesserit sisters, Imperial monarchs, and grasp swordsmen all jockeying for management.
Even the visible scope of the sequence is underwhelming. There’s a grandiose, operatic high quality to Villeneuve’s Dune that’s sorely missing in Prophecy. The scope of this sequence feels nearer to the SyFy miniseries from the early ‘00s. Dune shouldn’t really feel this small and contained, particularly a sequence ostensibly a part of the identical universe because the movies.
Dune: The Original Game of Thrones
One of the explanations Dune has struck such a chord with readers over the many years is that the books did Game of Thrones earlier than Game of Thrones was a factor. Cut by means of all of the sci-fi trappings and the spice visions and you’ve got principally the identical premise – a kingdom made up of many nice homes all scheming and plotting towards each other. The unique Dune even has its personal, surprising Red Wedding second when the Areides household are betrayed and lots of beloved characters are killed in a single fell swoop.
It stands to cause that any TV spinoff of the Dune films would need to lean into the franchise’s Game of Thrones-esque qualities. The Game of Thrones books made for compelling tv in their very own proper (give or take a few seasons on the finish), so why not give viewers the Dune equal of that?
So far, it doesn’t seem that Dune: Prophecy is veering in that route. Again, the scope of the sequence is simply too small. The present facilities primarily across the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and House Corrino, with a number of Arrakis-based characters like Travis Fimmel’s conflict hero Desmond Hart thrown in for good measure. You don’t get that sense of many homes warring and plotting towards each other.
If Dune: Prophecy goes to succeed, it must forged a wider web and draw in additional characters. We want extra characters who aren’t a part of the identical handful of homes and organizations. We want protagonists whose fates aren’t preordained. Prophecy wants a real Game of Thrones-sized forged pulled from all walks of life within the Dune universe. There must be room for betrayal and shock and all of the surprising plot twists that made Game of Thrones such a compelling watch. Spending time with a handful of ancestors of characters from the flicks merely isn’t going to chop it.
For extra on the Dune franchise, discover out what to anticipate from Dune: Part 3 and be taught why the response Dune: Part 2 is all about Hollywood’s present issues.
Jesse is a mild-mannered employees author for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
