This article contains spoilers for “Dune: Prophecy.”
Like a sandworm swallowing a spice harvester, “Dune” ate in 2024. Thank a sequel and then a prequel: First, “Dune: Part Two,” the mega-blockbuster follow-up to the 2021 space opera “Dune,” both based on the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert about prophecies, interstellar feudalism and big, big worms. It delighted critics, made more than $700 million around the globe and is in the mix as the annual awards season kicks off. Also: those popcorn buckets.
Then came “Dune: Prophecy,” the prequel set 10,000 years before the events of “Dune,” which wrapped up its first season on HBO and Max on Sunday with a bloody, techy and sandy episode. Last week, Max announced that it had renewed the series for a second season.
Reviews of “Prophecy” were mixed going in, and the show — with its large cast and tangled plots — began at a very low boil. Now, six episodes later, the reaction from fans seems to be … not bad? And give us more.
“We’re seeing that people have a hunger for this universe, which deals with issues of colonialization, radicalization and free will that remain relevant as ever,” says David Chen, host of the Decoding TV podcast.
The pop-cultural ascension of “Dune” kicked off three years ago with the movie directed by Denis Villeneuve, which focused on Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his family’s arrival on the sandy world of Arrakis, where they were betrayed by their emperor and nearly wiped out by the rival House Harkonnen. “Dune: Part Two” finished the story, showing audiences how Paul rose to defeat the Emperor (played by Christopher Walken) while raising an army on Arrakis, learning how to ride a sandworm and outmaneuvering the false seers of the Bene Gesserit, a mysterious all-female order that influences events across the galaxy.
“Dune: Prophecy,” which premiered in November, sent audiences back 10,000 years — to when the Imperium was young and the Bene Gesserit was just getting off the ground. Throughout the season, audiences discovered the origins of the group, called “the Sisterhood” here, as well as how the Atreides and Harkonnen clans ended up in the blood feud that defined the two movies.
The finale set up the next battle to come. The season was rich with assassinations and secret plots but avoided the setting most associated with the franchise: Arrakis. That changed with episode six, the closing moments of which showed Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) experiencing a vision that showed soldier Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel) getting tortured and instilled with the ability to destroy people with a techno-virus by an unknown figure. Valya, along with Princess Ynez Corrino and Keiran Atreides, hope to discover the identity of that enemy on Arrakis. (Meanwhile, Emperor Javicco Corrino took his own life to avoid being killed by his former love, Sister Francesca, who was then stabbed with a poisonous gom jabbar needle by Javicco’s wife, Empress Natalya, leaving the Imperium in shambles. Oy.)
Did “Dune: Prophecy” land the ship? Some of the most dedicated “Dune” fans seemed to enjoy HBO’s series. “Good, not great” is the running theme among the cynics on Reddit and TikTok.
“I really appreciated a lot of what [the show] was trying to accomplish,” says Chen, the podcast host. “It’s a difficult task to take a world that has become really popular via books and films and translate it into a long-form TV series.”
Tony Mosello, a senior writer and editor for the Flick Fanatic and a critic for the Critics Choice Awards, agrees: “I felt the show was a little uneven as a whole, with so much introduction and slow-building exposition.”
In some TikTok videos and social media posts, fans said that more episodes would have helped explain the show better for casual fans. (One fan even floated the idea of a nature documentary about the origins of Arrakis.)
“The show has reignited excitement for the universe and reminded audiences of how impactful the films are,” says Brandon Benitez, a TikTok creator and fan of “Prophecy.” But “for those unfamiliar with the ‘Dune material,’ it might feel overwhelming because of the complex world-building and rich mythology.”
Abu Zafar, who hosts a “Dune” lore podcast, said that the intricacy of the show went a little too far. “I think ‘Dune: Prophecy’s’ greatest sin was losing sight of the big ideas that make ‘Dune’ what it is, and instead being too preoccupied with lore,” he wrote on X. “The lore was never what made Frank’s books interesting, and I say that as the creator of a ‘Dune’ lore podcast.”
For decades, “Dune” was a franchise that sci-fi fans adored and felt compelled to apologize for, given the excesses of Herbert’s later sequels. There was an aborted film adaptation by Alejandro Jodorowsky in the early 1970s (which at least led to an acclaimed documentary), a funky Syfy channel miniseries and a quirky ’80s movie that was later disowned by director David Lynch. Now “Dune” is being compared to “Game of Thrones,” “Star Wars” (which it helped inspire) and other such pop culture behemoths as it makes an imprint on the entertainment landscape.
As fans see their beloved franchise headline prestige TV and the box office, they’ve had to wrestle with the … odder moments of the story. While Herbert’s original novel and sequels were mostly celebrated, praise diminished as the series went on. Aspects of the sequels include (but are hardly limited to): resurrection, possession, reincarnation and a worm-human-hybrid god-emperor.
But then again, there are fans who stand by Herbert’s original books and its quirky story because of the franchise’s other sequels. Herbert’s son Brian Herbert and co-author Kevin J. Anderson have written dozens of novels that are sometimes deemed fan fiction or non-canon by some fans since they’re loosely based off the original book and seemingly some outlines by Frank Herbert. The books scatter the entire “Dune” timeline, with stories from before and after the events of the original novels. (The duo’s book “Sisterhood of Dune” and their “Great Schools of Dune” trilogy inspired “Prophecy.”)
Clearly, the “Dune” franchise isn’t going anywhere. Villeneuve is already working on the third “Dune” film — likely to cover the events of Frank Herbert’s first sequel, “Dune: Messiah” — while a second season of “Prophecy” looms. (Showrunner Alison Schapker told The Washington Post in November that they’ve already planned a multiple-season story.) Will the franchise maintain its momentum? As they (probably!) say on Arrakis, even a sandworm will turn.
