Someone break out the spice: the cast of HBO Max’s Dune prequel series has just added an exciting new cast member. Deadline reports that Indira Varma is now attached to Dune: The Sisterhood. This news comes only a week after the announcement of the show’s first cast members, Emily Watson and Shirley Henderson.
Game of Thrones fans will of course recognize Varma as Ellaria Sand. She appeared more recently in Obi-Wan Kenobi as the rebel Tala Durith. Varma will play Empress Natalya in Dune: The Sisterhood, who is described as “a formidable royal who united thousands of worlds in her marriage to Emperor Corrino.”
Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand) will play Empress Natalya in Dune: The Sisterhood
The Sisterhood is set 10,000 years before Paul Atriedes and his family come to the planet Arrakis in Dune, and follows the Harkonnen Sisters (played by Watson and Henderson) as they form the enigmatic group of women known as the Bene Gesserit. The Bene Gesserit are a prominent force in Herbert’s Dune books; they experiment with genes in order to bring about the birth of a savior known as the Kwisatz Hadderach. Perhaps we’ll see the birth of that prophecy in the show?
The prequel is based on the novel Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Dune movie director Denis Villeneuve and writer John Spaitz will serve as executive producer on the series alongside Brian Herbert. Kevin J. Anderson is also attached as a co-producer.
No release date has yet been announced for Dune: The Sisterhood, but with all the recent casting news it feels likely we’ll learn more about it in the coming months. In the meantime, Villeneuve’s sequel Dune: Part Two is currently filming, and it was recently announced that its release date was being bumped up from November 17, 2023 to November 3, 2023.
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