We talk to the cast and crew of Dune: Prophecy about HBO's terrific new sci-fi series

This upcoming Sunday, HBO will air the first episode of Dune: Prophecy, a new TV series set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe. But don't expect to see Paul Atreides anywhere; this show is set 10,000 years before the events of the first Dune book, adapted recently by director Denis Villeneuve for the big screen. Dune: Prophecy takes place in the shadow of the Machine Wars, where humanity fought against violent thinking machines and just barely won. Now, various schools are cropping up to teach human beings to do things that computers used to do. One of those schools is the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, where women are trained to be human lie detectors. Sisters are then placed in the halls of power alongside the leaders of the great houses. Are they serving truth, or are they subtly massaging events in the Sisterhoods' favor?

The show digs deep into that question, and into the world of Dune in general. Alongside several other outlets, we here at WinterIsComing got to talk to several cast and crew members about the show. Check out what they had to saw below (with certain answers left out lest they give away spoilers for future episodes; we can save those for later).

Here's who all we talked to, in the order we present them in this article:

• Alison Schapker is the showrunner on Dune: Prophecy. She previously worked on shows like Westworld, Lost and Altered Carbon.
• Chloe Lea plays Lila (Foundation), a young acolyte training to become a Bene Gesserit sister.
• Jade Anouka (His Dark Materials) plays Sister Theodosia, a more experienced acolyte in the sisterhood.
• Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves, Punch Drunk Love) as Valya Harkonnen, the Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit
• Olivia Williams (Dollhouse, The Nevers) as Tula Harkonnen, Valya's sister and a Bene Gesserit sister high in the order
• Jodhi May (Game of Thrones, The Witcher) as Empress Natalya, wife of Emperor Javicco Corrino
• Sarah-Sofie Boussnina as Princess Ynez, the first daughter of the Imperium
• Josh Heuston as Constantine Corrino, Ynez's illegitimate brother
• Chris Mason as Keiran Atreides, the swordmaster of House Corrino and the teacher to both Ynez and Constantine
• Jordan Goldberg is the executive producer on Dune: Prophecy. He previously worked on shows and movies like Westworld, Interstellar and Inception.
• Travis Fimmel (Vikings, Raised by Wolves) as Desmond Hart, a charismatic soldier who makes inroads in the Corrino court

Without further ado, let's get to the interviews, starting with the showrunner!

Alison Schapker (showrunner)

Q: When dealing with a franchise that has a really established look from the films...what was it like kind of getting into somebody else's visual style, and then do you blend your own style with what's already been established?

Alison Schapker: "We were definitely influenced by...the films and Denis Villeneuve's universe that he set up, and I think he really unlocked Dune for people, and keeping it an incredible spectacle but also, you know, really feeling grounded and the characters.

"We do view ourselves as 10,000 years earlier, but like speaking to those films from a distance. And I think that one of the ways that really helped us distinguish ourselves is that we're not really set on Arrakis. So while Arrakis exerts a poll in the Imperium like it does in any Dune story, it's at a distance, it's kind of haunting us from afar, it's influencing events from afar. And we were able to set our story on worlds that hopefully will be fun for Dune fans who enjoyed the movies to go to different planets that they haven't been before. So it was a lot of fun for us to imagine, like: what is the aesthetic of Salusa Secundus? And what does Lankiveil look like? And you know, other planets we go to.

"So that was really fun, and anytime somebody sets a high aesthetic bar, I just think it inspiring to try and meet your own."

Q: Did you have a favorite bit of production design? How were you conceiving of the main look that you got to build on kind of 10,000 before we're familiar with anything visually?

Alison Schapker: "Well, especially when we're talking about visual aesthetics, that is the work of like a whole team of people. And one of the things I was most excited about and proud of working on the show was the people we had doing our production design, our director, our DP, our visual effects team, you know, it's a real group effort to kind of like synthesize a vision. And yes, we had the movies out there, but also we were in our own production, you know, where we were on planets nobody had been on. We were at a time period that hadn't been realized on the screen. We were going into the Bene Gesserit in a way that other shows had not gone behind the veil. We want the audiences to feel like, 'oh, wow, like I'm in a Dune universe, but also I'm getting to go places I haven't gotten to go before.'

"I love world building. I love filmmaking, and there's no better canvas than something like this, where you're really getting to just do sweeping things, you know, big, big ambitious filmmaking. So that was a real joy. I mean, daunting but like exhilarating."

Q: Were you thinking about the discussions surrounding generative AI while conceiving, writing, shooting the show. Does the show have something to say about that conversation we're having?

Alison Schapker: "Oh, [it was] absolutely something I was thinking about. And I had been working on Westworld prior to this, and that show is spinning its own tale about artificial intelligence. So I was very tapped into the current debates and keeping my eye on it and. And then to go from that world into a world on the other side of our conflict with artificial intelligence and to actually be dealing with fallout and ramifications and fear and suspicion and the banning of machines...and also just to know what's in between that in the Dune universe, like a real great cost to humanity and giving up their agency like that.

"And so, yeah, it's trippy and it's wonderful because you feel like it's so pertinent. I think the Frank Herbert and Dune couldn't be happening at a better moment, because here we are rushing headlong into turning our thinking over to machines for better or worse, it's a pertinent time to be asking questions. And I think Dune is asking a whole series of questions about where that might lead. So it was wonderful. My creative life and my daily life were at odds in the best possible way."

Q: I'd love to ask about...the decision to [change the title from] Dune: The Sisterhood to Dune: Prophecy and what that maybe says about the future direction of the show.

Alison Schapker: "Oh, yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think that we certainly are true to the idea that we are telling an origin story of the Bene Gesserit. And it started out as The Sisterhood, and a seminal text we're working with is Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson's novel The Sisterhood of Dune, and really their whole Schools trilogy, so the title "Dune: Sisterhood," on the one hand, like very aptly applies.

"But I think as the show has developed, while absolutely we are definitely telling the story of the Bene Gesseit, we're also telling a story of this Imperium at this younger moment, at this fragile moment, like coming out of the wars, rebuilding. And I think that while we're very excited to anchor the show in the Bene Gesserit, we're also telling a story about the imperial family, we're also telling a story about Arrakis, there's other schools we would like to visit if we're so lucky to have more time to tell stories in the future. So I think we didn't want to limit ourselves.

"And I think 'Prophecy' is actually very much in keeping with the Sisterhood. We know that they're going to put in motion the prophecy that leads to Paul Atreides. But I think the sort of danger of prophecy, the politicization of it, what happens when we believe in something, and what does it mean to spread ideas or have faith in ideas? So in some ways, I feel like it's another way to say Dune: Sisterhood, but encompass a bigger part of the world in some ways."

Q: Can you talk a little bit about casting Emily Watson and Olivia Williams. Where the idea of their sisterhood come from?

Alison Schapker: "Valya and Tula, I agree with you, are very much kind of a beating heart of the show. And I think it's part of something we very consciously wanted to explore, which is like: you have the sisterhood as an institution, but you also have a sisterhood as a very specific familial relationship. And these are Harkonnen sisters who share a very traumatic past who are in relationship to the Imperium. And how are they gonna take the reins of an institution? And what does it mean like when an individual is in charge; like, how are they shaped by the sisterhood? How do they shape it? Where is their loyalty to the group that they are representing? And where is the loyalty to themselves and their family dynamic? And these are all things we wanna explore.

"So Emily Watson and Olivia Williams are such powerhouse actresses. They are astounding to watch. They've never worked together, but they've been in each other's orbit for so long. And I've heard them speak about what it means for them to be working together, which is just a joy to behold and so lucky for the show, because I do think it's magic the way they embody those characters."

Chloe Lea (Lila) and Jade Anouka (Theodosia)

Q: I was curious for both of you what the Bene Gesserit training was like for you guys on set in terms of acting choices and styles that you guys all got coached on or anything like that.

Jade Anouka: "We had quite a lot of training, physically training to do the fight sequences that we do. Something I loved was learning the prana-bindu, like the meditation movement that you see us doing on the cliff and in the rain. That was really cool to to learn and be part of. And it was a quite good, because it kind of joined us, because we all had to really learn it. So we felt very much like life imitating art, like we were in school."

Chloe Lea: "And the scenes where we're being literally taught a lesson, we're being introduced to truth-saying and stuff like that. I felt like I learned so much from just the script and hearing Emily teach class...I feel like we were doing a lot of learning every day we were on set, especially with those classroom scenes."

Jade: "Every day's a school day."

Q: So I'd love to know a little bit about what it was like engaging with the anti-technology vein that's in the story. We're coming into the world of Dune in a very different place than the films. This is a much more new thing for the people of this world. What was it like engaging with that?

Chloe: "Well, I think the Machine Wars were quite recent that it happened in relation to our characters being in the sisterhood. So I feel like that fear of technology is still quite fresh."

Jade: "It means our focus is way more on our bodies and our abilities, and that the abilities are that we have within ourselves are so powerful, and actually focusing, looking inwards and going, 'OK, how can we, rather than [use] these outside sources, [use our bodies]? That's what the Sisterhood does, right? It says, 'Hey, we can teach you to learn to control your body on a molecular level and actually be able to read people, using biology for power and really understanding us as humans and how we work and using that rather than an outside force."

Q: I'm really impressed by how well you guys hold your own as performers with Olivia Williams and Emily Watson, legends on the screen. When you guys were told that you're gonna be acting opposite them, what's going through your head and how do you up your game to match them, scene for scene?

Jade: "Gosh, yeah, when I was told I was like, 'That's like a massive pull,' getting to work so closely with Emily Watson...And I think we were fortunate in that both those women are so generous. They're such generous actors and people, and it meant that they really worked with us, and we really did scenes together, and it wasn't like, 'I'm up here and you're down there.' It was like, 'No, we're both actors in a scene. Let's try and tell this story to the best of our ability. And doing that is kind of making sure that this is a relationship. And yeah, I had the best time working with Emily. She's incredible."

Chloe: "And with Olivia, when I was doing like scenes with her, I remember feeling like a better actor afterwards, because you feel like you kind of have to up your game, and it's stuff that you probably can't even like verbally describe. But it's stuff you pick up when acting opposite someone that is so intimate. It's between you two. And I feel like I picked up a lot of that stuff from Olivia, so I'm really grateful that we got to act across from these legends."

Jade: "I feel like we're really lucky that we get to do lots of our scenes with these guys."

Q: I heard at NYCC there was some talk about how everyone under their Bene Gesserit robes was wearing Nike sneakers.

Chloe: "This isn't true...We were in the most uncomfortable shoes."

Jade: "Proper Sisterhood stuff."

Chloe: "Flat like rock hard on the bottom."

Jade: "Sisterhood above all. You don't need the arches in your feet."

Chloe: "No, you can molecularly change the shape of your feet."

Jade: "Maybe 30 years ago, they had different shoes. When we were there, it was basically black pieces of cardboard with beautifully intricate designs on the top."

Chloe: "Yeah, they looked great. The feel side? You know, I wish we were in Nikes."

Q: What was your favorite bit of production design?

Chloe: "I think the sets for me, easily. Even sets that we weren't filming on that I got to, like, sneakily see, it really shows you the scale of the world. And even with the VFX on top, we're given so many props. The set designers [and] visual artists absolutely expand the show and make it look even more vast than it already did on set. I think that is just an incredible element that makes our jobs easier, for me anyway. And it also really opens up to the audience like how big this world actually is."

Q: Chloe, so you're a pretty young actor, but I think this is your second major big sci-fi tentpole show that you've been in. Did you apply anything from your time on Foundation to Dune: Prophecy? How are they different? The same?

Chloe: "They're quite similar in that they're both — excuse the pun — foundational pieces of sci fi, right? They're both credited for a lot of inspiration within the sci-fi genre, So I feel like I kind of took my approach to Foundation, which is just being like, 'Oh my God, this world is so vast and so huge.' My approach was kind of to not feel overwhelmed by that, and to just trust that people around me know what they're doing, and also to ask for help when I need it. Because, yeah, I'm a young actor and I'm very aware that I have a lot to learn, and being on a set like Dune: Prophecy, I felt like I was learning something every single day, and I was just so grateful to be around people who are so not only knowledgeable about Dune and the universe, but also about the craft of acting. I felt like I learned so much. So there were a lot of transferable skills, but it was, like, so different in many ways. Also, I made, like great friends on both jobs. So it's a nice thing."

Q: What was the energy like on set given how many women were involved in this show? Did it bring a different feel than you might have expected on another show?

Jade: "It was definitely a first for me, and it feels like it's very rare to be on the set with so many women. The leads are women, the actors were women, but also all the SAs (supporting artists, aka background actors, aka extras) are women. There really is a lot of female energy on set, and it was an absolute joy. We had so much fun, we really did."

Chloe: "I feel like there's the kind of stereotypical approach that people are like,'Oh, but did you not get along?' No, I loved every second of it, especially like filming withcast members who were women. It was just such an incredible experience. It's sadly a unique one to be so populated with so many women in a show like this, especially on such a grand scale to be led by two women. And yeah, it just felt like such a brilliant and lucky experience."

Jade: "Yeah, we were very aware of it. It was great. And we really sort of just looked out for each other. I think also us all filming in a country that none of us live in, we really looked out for each other. And yeah, it was quite fun on set."

Olivia Williams (Tula Harkonnen) and Emily Watson (Valya Harkonnen)

Q: What has it been like exploring sci-fi as a demographic that doesn't get that kind of representation?

Emily Watson: "Absolutely thrilling. It's really, really a joy. I mean, Olivia and I, we've known each other since our 20s, and we were at the Royal Shakespeare Company together. And say, maybe in our 30, we'd have looked each other in the eye and gone, 'This is a game of diminishing returns, So make the most of it.' And here we are in our 50, leading not just a TV show but a sci-fi TV show. And that's really thrilling."

Olivia Williams: "And a company of women."

Emily: "We're not in any way holding these women up as any kind of feminist icon. It's definitely a case of, 'Don't do this at home, children, please.' This is a properly complex, morally ambiguous universe where a lot of bad things happen."

Olivia: "Yeah, they're not necessarily people in themselves who deserve to be congratulated on their moral code. But it's wonderful to be in a a sci-fi show of an extended TV franchise that features women at the centre of it. That's without question. But there's still very tangled, complicated issues to do with the patriarchy. In order to be powerful women, they have to be isolated from men. They have to have this mystery, this kind of chastity, and they look and sound terribly like nuns. They're called Reverend Mothers. It's still like, 'How do we convince men that we're wise and capable of power? We have to be veiled. We have to not associate with men, and we have to make them believe that we can tell when they're lying.'

"I'd say that was a pretty good formula for control. It would be nice, though, if we could also have a show about women who get to be powerful while consorting in normal society.

"I have spoken."

Q: One of the things that I found really compelling about this show is the theme of truth. On the one hand we're so used to see the Atreides being the good guys and the Harkonnens being the good guys, and we get a different viewpoint here. How did this theme speak to you and how did that influence your performance?

Emily: "Absolutely, the whole drama is driven by what we perceive to be a lie, which is that our family, our great-grandfather, was betrayed by his comrades in the Machine Wars. And this is a lie perpetrated by the Atreides and we were banished and dishonored because of it. Valya particularly is driven by vengeance and a desire to overturn that lie. And then the Sisterhood becomes a refuge for that rage and that power that she has."

Olivia: "And to see how truth can be wielded as an instrument of power, which we've seen. If only there was such a power that I had to be able to say, 'This is the truth and anybody who disagrees with it can be eliminated.' Because the absolute truth is, as we know as we run up to this election of yours, it become obfuscated, and there doesn't seem to be such a thing as absolute truth at the moment."

Emily: "The Sisterhood present as these women who whose function it is to tell truth from lies, but in fact, behind the scenes, they're they're far from truthful. They are manipulating that power. They're manipulating truth as a commodity, and they're allowing people to stay in power or not. The push and pull of of rebellion and rulers is under their control...So while being truth-sayers, they are extremely devious."

Q: Was there any inspiration you took from real-world figures, real-world political operators who helped influence how you played your characters?

Emily: "When we were cast, we went to the National Portrait Gallery in London and we sat in front of the portrait of Queen Elizabeth I and her sisters and cousins and all the relatives who were part of that internecine warfare that was waged at that time in English history. And it was a police state where everything was controlled and everybody was spied on. And the person who controlled the narrative was the winner. And the sense of immense power is not demonstrated, not wielded in those portraits, but is so potent and scary."

Olivia: "You wear it. There's this sort of iconography that you see, and the signals that are given by what you wear, which is so present in this beautifully dressed Dune: Prophecy. The sisters are masked, veiled. But their truth is something that's almost on a cellular, biological level. But what we felt the connection was with with the Tudor court was that one powerful sister could write, ' I love you,' with the same pen that she signed a death warrant. And that can be your sister or your cousin or your direst enemy. Or indeed your husband."

Q: We talked to Chloe and Jade about about the shoes they got to wear onset under their Bene Gesserit costuming. I was curious to hear more about your experience both with the production design and the costuming around the Bene Gesserit, and also the coaching and training you got for being a Bene Gesserit and what you were looking to evoke in your performances with that.

Emily: "Talking of shoes..."

Olivia: "Yeah, well, we got a jump on the others. Unfortunately, they got, I think, the most uncomfortable shoes in the history of shoes, whereas Emily managed to insist we got the most comfortable shoes ever invented."

Emily: "They're kind of like properly orthopedic trainers disguised as Bene Gesserit shoes."

Olivia: "We looked forward to getting into our shoes. But there was a very moving moment when we were learning the sequence from these amazing fight directors, and we had a dancer and someone who was an expert in various types of martial arts to teach us the prana-bindu. And there's a moment when it's chaos and a bit like watching a bad production of A Chorus Line. And then there's a moment where you all move as one and [there was] a beautiful kind of unconscious energy in the room as we began to move as one, both sort of as a cast and and as we performed the prana-bindu. And then the absolute kind of admiration: our characters got to stand and watch while they had to do it, you know, while being pelted by rain and wind and hailstones. They really went through it. So that was probably a moment that united them and we watched."

Jodhi May (Empress Natalya Arat)

Q: What was it like coming to Dune? Was this a franchise you were already familiar with or was this brand spanking new to you?

Jodhi May: "I'd seen the David Lynch film when I was very, very young. So it had really left an impression on me and I obviously loved the recent films. You know, they're just incredible. So I was really excited and overjoyed to be a part of the Dune universe."

Q: What was your favorite bit of production design?

Jodhi: "The sets are extraordinary. Obviously, they're really epic and so cinematic. And walking into those spaces every day was really a joy because there's something really theatrical about them. You know, those scenes in the throne room, they really are like, playing to an audience. And they allow you as an actor to really use the space. So that was incredible. The design I really admired. Theykind of made me think of sort of Ken Adams and Doctor Strangelove and The Last Emperor. The set design on those films was equally as intricate and epic.

"The costumes are really clever because they play with this idea of jewelry as adornment, but also jewelry as something that is confining, that contains the characters. And there's this incredible kind of piece that Natalia wears in the engagement ceremony, which is almost like a bird cage on the top half of her body. I thought there was such incredible craftsmanship on the show that I really admired and that really helped me to define her character as an actor."

Q: When you're tasked with playing literal royalty, did you find yourself drawn to any historical figures, or do you stick to science fiction inspirations? How do you get in the headspace of someone who's literally ruling the galaxy?

Jodhi: "Yeah, that's a really good question. If you think about it in terms of ruling the galaxy, it becomes a bit abstract, and it's a little bit more challenging to make feel real and relatable as an actor. And your job as an actor is always to ground things in truth, even if you are in a sci-fi universe. And that's something that Emily does brilliantly. So my way that I was going to do that and make this feel, as opposed to something very abstract, with Natalya was to sort of read up on these mediaeval queens and the way in which they would have to sort of be the power behind the throne, and manuever in this universe where the men were kings, but actually quite often it would be the queens, the wives who were having to go out and pawn their jewelry to raise an army, to gather tithes or conquer territories. So that was the kind of world of research that I tried to ground Natalya in to make her feel a little bit more relatable."

Q: Did you get any inspiration for your performance from Villeneuve's movies or just from the books directly?

Jodhi: "I mean, there's such an incredible sense in in the books, but also in the Villeneuve's films, of magic and mysticism and mystery. And, you know, Alison and I spoke a lot about that. And she really felt that that was the world that Natalia comes from. So that really informs her sense of relying on instinct, on something very huma, maybe something very analogue, to put it bluntly. And her suspicion of the thinking machines...perhaps what we would think of as a modern-day equivalent of our deference to something like AI. So yeah, I absolutely took inspiration from the films. Some of my favorite scenes are the scenes in the desert, where there's this kind of return back to something that's very spiritual, very instinctive. And for me, that's what makes the film so magical.

"And I think for Frank Herbert there's a real sense of trust in nature. I think that's what he always brings you back to as an audience. Trust in nature, you know? And his message is really, 'Stop exploiting it, stop destroying it.' And for me, I think Natalya is the essence of that message."

Q: What do you think about the way the show's themes dovetail with our current discussion of AI?

Jodhi: "Well, I I love the way that's explored. I mean, it's really zeitgeist-y. It's incredible. Philip K. Dick was was tapping into those ideas as well, so it's It's not necessarily new, but the way it chimes in with what we're going through now and the kind of social upheaval, the implications of it, what it means for us on a sort of day-to-day reality, I think is really prescient. So that really brought it alive for me, it really made it something that is not distant. It's here, we're here, we're in that moment. And I love that. You know, I'm I'm very much on Natalya's side in that respect. And I feel that that's where the books were so prescient. You know, he was really ahead of his time in what he was talking about and the dangers of what it means to invest in in the synthetic or the mechanical to the extent that we sort of divest ourselves of authority, and self determination. So yeah, I find all of that fascinating."

Q: When we first meet the royal family in the earliest episodes, they're very much on the back heel...I get the idea that things aren't going well for them. How do you and the cast work together to play characters who have all the power in the world but are still struggling?

Jodhi: "For me, it just made me think of the Romanovs in Russia, this royal family where there's a kind of Rasputin figure who comes in and power gets divested to this character who is so problematic. And I think it's a really interesting exploration of power, because it's a family that is possibly a little dysfunctional, or is trying to kind of negotiate how to carry on, how to survive, if you like. So I kind of looked to to history for that, and my kind of equivalent was pre-revolutionary Russia and the Romanovs, who I personally find absolutely fascinating. And I think you can see little strands of that in this royal family, so it's what makes them intriguing."

Sarah-Sofie Boussnina (Princess Ynez), Josh Heuston (Constantine Corrino) and Chris Mason (Keiran Atreides)

Q: Through your characters, we get to see a part of the Dune universe I don't think we've ever seen before onscreen, which is to say, I don't think we've ever been to the club before. What was it like exploring that aspect of this universe?

Chris Mason: "As far as the spice den goes, the set alone brings you in so much, because wall to wall, it feels like a full bar, a full nightclub. The ceiling is so low, the detail on the seats, the detail on the walls, the bar itself, all the props and stuff that really brings you in...it is hard to imagine when you see, 'oh, a nightclub or a spice den in a script.' You're like, 'how are they going to do that?' But our set designers and our creatives who were involved in that really knocked it out of the park. And I think the vibe they went for on a few of the scenes, you know, everyone dressed highly and dressed in a certain way...and there was a real vibe in there. When you would go through, you kind of felt like you were there."

Sarah-Sofie Boussnina: "Yeah, 100%. And the music. And it was so cool. We all really want to go there in real life."

Josh Heuston: "I definitely think it's like an underground that a lot of the characters feel comfortable to be themselves at. I think your two characters have quite a few moments in there and Constantine heads there probably every chance he gets."

Chris: "Let your hair down, isn't it? You know, there's the rich mixing with the poor..."

Sarah-Sofie: "And also I feel like it's kind of like this club where you can go and people will not tell about you, like you can go have fun."

Chris: "There's no social media there."

Sarah-Sofie: "Yeah, it's just whatever happens in the club stays in the club."

Q: Can you tease how your characters' goals and journeys will intersect with that of Valya and the Sisterhood?

Sarah-Sofie: "What can I tease about that? I don't want to give anything away. But there are definitely things that they agree on in terms of plans in the future, and I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Q: Are there any historical figures from Earth's past or even present that you used as inspiration to get into the mindset of someone who would be in your position of power?

Sarah-Sofie: "Yeah, I dug into like royal families and how it must feel being born into a role of being a royal and living a very secluded life and just dealing with everything that comes with that. Also how tradition always plays a huge part in every royal family. And then I dug into like, yeah, specific royals."

Josh: "Yeah, Prince Harry and the book Despair. I use Prince Hal as well as a reference because I guess he has that sort of drunken persona...I guess royal houses in general, we did a lot of YouYube videos of how they would have their facade on in public and then you'd see, I guess, like paparazzi videos of them when they're not necessarily on and that sort of stuff."

Sarah-Sofie: "And how it's very complex, because from a very young age they learn all of this etiquette and traditions and they have to live up to being at work when they're out in public and at formal events, but there's so much more than that. There's also a darker side, the secluded life, not having any real friends. Because Constantine and Ynez only have each other, because they know that the life that they live holds value to strangers; it can be hard to trust people around them because they might want something out of them because of their position. And also how lonely that must feel. So for them having each other to rely on, I think that makes them super protective of each other."

Chris: "And for my role as a sword master, I actually looked into samurai teachings, took a few lessons when there's some Japanese hapkido stuff to see how the coach and how the Sensei as it were would teach, and that gave me a kind of good understanding of the discipline needed for this type of work. But less on the royal side, I suppose."

Q: What was your favorite piece of production design, or your favorite little piece of the world that maybe only you could see and wasn't going to scan on camera?

Chris: "Did you ever see the Solaris? The money? Little tiny rectangle. I don't think you ever like see a close-up of them or anything, but it's the cash, right? The detail on it is phenomenal, like just back to front this whole thing and it's got a nice weight to it. The props department really went above and beyond, like so many practical things you could use. I really like that one."

Sarah-Sofie: "I love the space car that we ride in towards the club. I thought that was really cool. But also I just Princess Inez's bedroom. And she has this little spice bar...I just imagine [Inez and Constantine] having conversations and just getting intoxicated...I think that room was like my favorite."

Josh: "Mine was the baliset. That was probably my favorite piece. They even had like a slide out so you could make different sounds with it."

Sarah-Sofie: "It's so cool, you learned how to play it."

Josh: "Which was fun, learning how to play that. We did a few lessons."

Chris: "And he's gonna play for you all right now. All right, Josh."

Josh: "Give me one second."

Sophie: "Yeah, that's so cool."

Travis Fimmel (Desmond Hart) and Jordan Goldberg (showrunner)

Q: Travis, we've seen you play your share of heroes and villains in the past. As someone who's so incredibly likable, what does it take to play a characters who is just a completely unlikable person, even though they're charming and charismatic?

Travis Fimmel: "It's fun. He's got a lot of issues mentally. He's a very pained human being and he feels justified in what he does...he doesn't want to rob a bank or get in a car chase with a cop. I love being a bad guy."

Q: I'd love to ask about the future of the show. How fleshed out is this series? Does it last for many seasons? And for Travis, do you have a sense of how long with the show your time could last?

Travis: "I think it's how long they'll put up with me. I'm hoping season 3 is gonna be shot in Australia. I have no idea the plans for the show."

Jordan Goldberg: "When you get to Episode 6, you'll see. Some truths come out that have a lot of legs to tell more stories about. The world that Frank Herbert and then Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson with the new books...I mean, there's so many things to touch upon in this universe. Our characters themselves are incredibly rich and their choices and their backstories and their motivations give a lot of potential for more stories. You know, I'm hoping we can go as long as we can. I mean, the show is called Dune: Prophecy. So we're just getting started about how all this comes to be 10,000 years later with Paul Atreides."

Travis: "This really is a period pace, isn't it?"

Jordan: "It's a futuristic period piece."

Q: What was your favorite bit of production design, whether that was big or something that only you noticed?

Travis: "Jordan will say the dresses. The CGI was what blows my mind. I saw the trailer, and just a world that's created and people's imaginations from the book and a lot of visuals they're making up, and the tiny details. There's these humongous sets and then there's these tiny details that the camera picks up. We had such a good team from makeup to wardrobe to set design to the carpenters. I think catering was my favorite."

Jordan: "I think the two most impressive stats were the library inside the Sisterhood and then the throne room inside the palace. The space that you kind of detect when you're watching on the screen really is almost a 1-to-1 in real life. They're massive, they're big, they've got all these really great details in them that Tom Meyer, our production designer, put in there. When you're in those rooms, you can't help but feel transported to the moment. So hopefully it helps with the acting."

Travis: "I need all the help I can get."

Q: Did you ever think about changing the visual style to reflect the fact that it's set 10,000 years before Dune, or did you always feel it should look like the Dune we know?

Jordan: "You bring up a point where like, you know, 'how does technology stay similar 10,000 years down the line?' For us, when you take something like the Holtzman technology, the Holtzman Shields and stuff like that, it's kind of fun to play with that, because it's a really cool device in the films and in the books, and so it's kind of cool to have that in our world. And what we did with it was extend it to other things. Our hovercrafts are Holtzman generated. We have a prison where people are levitated with Holtzman belts. We've got wheelchairs that are Holtzman-levitated as well. So it's just kind of fun to take some of the staples in terms of technology and just kind of extend it and try to show how it's sort of like spread out through our universe.

Q: What was it like exploring the anti-computer element of Dune in a much more direct way, with people still battling with the need to use thinking machines?

Travis: "We were talking about in the interview before: imagine if everybody's phone just got taken off today. It'd just throw the world into such a mess. It was so dependent on the phones and they were so dependent on thinking machines. [To Jordan] I'm setting you up for your answer."

Jordan: "The interesting thing about our show is when you cut people off of technology like that, there's a bit of stagnation. How does humanity react to that? And then all these various different schools, the Sisterhood being one of them, jump into the fray to kind of lead what the next human evolution is. At the same time now, though, there's a need for power. There's an understanding of, 'humanity needs a guide track.' And who's laying that track is part of the story we're trying to tell. So if we submit ourselves to thousands of years of technological oppression, if we suddenly lose that, this is a possible world scenario."

Travis: "Yeah, you gotta think for yourself. You can't just Google it."

Q: What does Desmond Hart represent in the Dune world? Travis, what influences did you draw on for Desmond's specific brand of strange?

Travis: "For somebody to be vicious in certain ways and cause so much pain for people, I think he has to have a lot of pain himself. He was really done wrong by. He's got horrible hatred for himself and he's just really trying to get his power back from people he thinks have hurt him."

Jordan: "I think Desmond Hart represents the messiah-like character that shows up in Dune. There's good evidence that something happened to him on Arrakis that, if he survived it, it would be a miraculous situation? The question is, do we trust it? And also, where is his morality scale? You know, Dune is so great because everything is morally ambiguous. Desmond gets presented as sort of as an antagonist. But is there a protagonist in there? Is what he's saying true, about the Bene Gesserit or about the Sisterhood controlling things? So it's interesting. Just like it was interesting about Paul Atreides. What I thought was very fascinating about [the original Dune] book when I first read it was [that Frank Herbert] took the hero's journey and just kind of reversed it. And we get to do the same thing with with Desmond Hart."

Q: Jordan, did you apply any lesson from your previous genre projects to Dune: Prophecy?

Jordan: "Well, when you make a show that has spectacle in it, as those kind of films do, spectacle gets boring quickly if you don't have great characters with relatable goals. When we first started breaking all the stories together, we really kind of attacked the characters. We wanted to make this a character study on multiple fronts with different characters. And when you do that, I think it makes the show, the story, constantly fresh. You're seeing things from different people's perspectives.

"Case in point: The story is about our Harkonnen family. You know, everyone has this notion about why the Harkonnens are so evil, or just that they're evil. But we're telling a story of 'it's not what it seems to be.' Valya Harkonnen seems hardcore and Desmond Hart thinks that she's out there to control the universe, but [we] show her as a younger person too and about the ambitions and where those came from and how her grief factors into all that stuff. The key to making those things work is that they could be epic, but they gotta be intimate, and they gotta be deep. And I think that we've done that with the show as well."

Dune: Prophecy premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, November 17.

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