Next month, HBO will air a new TV series set in the Dune universe. But don't get your hopes up looking for Paul Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet in the two recent Dune movies from director Denis Villenueve. Dune: Prophecy is set some 10,000 years before Paul is even born. Humanity is just now recovering from a brutal war against thinking machines, which have been outlawed across the Imperium. (ChatGPT will destroy us all, etc and so forth.) Sisters Valya and Tula Harkonnen (Emily Watson and Olivia Williams respectively) are part of the nascent Bene Gesserit sisterhood, and together try to steer humanity towards a better future. It's easier said than done.
The first episode of Dune: Prophecy will air on Sunday, November 17. That's the only episode for which we know the title: "The Hidden Hand." Here's the full schedule for all six episodes, which will air linearally on HBO and stream on Max:
- Episode 1, "The Hidden Hand": Sunday, November 17
- Episode 2: Sunday, November 24
- Episode 3: Sunday, December 1
- Episode 4: Sunday, December 8
- Episode 5: Sunday, December 15
- Episode 6: Sunday, December 22
Yes, there are only six episodes of this miniseries, but after watching a bunch I can at least tell you that they're all quite solid. Also, the cast and crew seem hopeful that they'll get to make more seasons in the future. That'll depend on you.
Dune: Prophecy will start up a week after the conclusion of The Penguin, another high-profile HBO show spun off from a popular movie, in this case The Batman. I'll admit that I had my doubts going into these shows — spinoffs and prequels can sometimes feel like low-effort cash grabs — but I was impressed with The Penguin and I think people will enjoy Dune: Prophecy as well. When HBO really puts its mind to something, it rarely misses, and it's put a lot of effort into these big IP series.
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