With his literary work, author Frank Herbert created a captivating world full of potential in the much beloved Dune novel series. With the work done in Denis Villeneuve’s films, the sometimes complex fantasy plane of the books was brought to life in live-action. The third installment in the filmmaker’s trilogy based on Herbert’s work might take a while to materialize. In the meantime, audiences can preoccupy their minds with Max’s upcoming series, Dune: Prophecy. The upcoming series will serve as an origin story of sorts for much of the strife and drama we bear witness to in the Villeneuve films – including the rise of the Harkonnen family.
When Villeneuve delivered his 2021 film, Dune, the film showcased the Harkonnen family as a powerful house in the galaxy, iron-fisted with their subjects and ruthless with their enemies, as House Atredies found out. However, when Dune: Prophecy premieres on Max this November, that portrayal of the Harkonnen family will not be on display. Showrunner Alison Schapker, while speaking to Entertainment Weekly, reveals that given the show’s timeline, the Harkonnen family will be in a weakened state as the series begins. Devastated by a galactic war, and without control of the spice from Arrakis with all the wealth and power it brings, the Harkonnen will be branded traitors and cowards by much of the galaxy at this point in time. Schapker’s comments read:
“We get to see how it all started. When we meet Valya Harkonnen, she is a girl whose family has experienced a tremendous fall from power and has lost its noble status. She dreams of restoring what she feels is rightfully theirs. How she goes from being someone obsessed with rebuilding her noble house to being someone who is dedicated to the Sisterhood above all is a big part of the story. It’s not a girlhood coming-of-age narrative so much as a woman’s rise to power from a Harkonnen perspective.”
House Harkonnen – A Mighty House of the Imperium
Set ten thousand years before the story of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his journey to becoming the Kwisatz Haderach, Dune: Prophecy will set the tone for what we see unfurl in the feature films. The series will follow the rise of the influential sect Bene Gesserit in the universe while focusing on two of its founding members, in particular, Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and her sister, Tula (Olivia Williams).
Given that the upcoming series is set many years in the past, the series need not worry about matching plots with the feature films. However, for a family that produced many of the villains in the first two Dune films by Villeneuve, including Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), and Glossu Rabban (Dave Bautist a). It would be interesting to see them depicted from a place of weakness which perhaps hints at the House’s desire to hold on to power no matter the cost.
Dune: Prophecy premieres this November. You can stream the first two Dune movies on Max.
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