'Dune: Prophecy' cast, producers reveal how the HBO series expands on the films

NEW YORK — The spice will flow on HBO.

The cast and producers of "Dune: Prophecy" stopped by New York Comic Con on Thursday to preview the first show spun off from Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" films. A new trailer for the six-episode HBO prequel series also screened and debuted online, and the show was finally given a premiere date: Nov. 17.

"Dune: Prophecy" takes place about 10,000 years before the movies and follows the origin of the Bene Gesserit, the group of women with supernatural abilities who covertly exert their influence over the entire "Dune" universe from the shadows. In the films, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is a Bene Gesserit who trains her son, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), in their ways.

Speaking to the crowd at New York Comic Con, showrunner Alison Schapker teased a series that will reveal more about the mysterious Bene Gesserit beyond what we see in the movies.

"In the films, they're very much in their full power and they're making their moves, but they're cloaked in a kind of intrigue," she said. "One of the great things about this series is, we certainly don't want to take away their mystique, but we do go behind their closed doors and see how they operate."

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'Dune: Prophecy' show will explore feud between House Harkonnen and House Atreides

The show also reveals the beginning of the epic feud between House Harkonnen and House Atreides. "How did that (feud) start?" Schapker said. "How did that become so entrenched? That's something we're going to be exploring."

In the original Frank Herbert novel and film adaptations, the Harkonnens are the villains; fans will recall Stellan Skarsgård's memorable portrayal of the horrifyingly evil Vladimir Harkonnen in 2021's "Dune." But in the show, the Harkonnens are our main characters. Emily Watson and Olivia Williams star as a pair of Harkonnen siblings leading the Sisterhood, the organization that will eventually become the Bene Gesserit.

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"Prophecy" takes place at a time when the Harkonnens are not "quite the more monstrous version that you see 10,000 years later," according to Schapker, though they're still shown as people with "tremendous force and willingness to go to great lengths to achieve their goals."

Emily Watson, Olivia Williams tease their 'Dune: Prophecy' characters

Watson said she loved playing Valya Harkonnen, a character from a "truly, truly, recognizably messed up family." Valya is set on "determining the right path for humankind," she teased.

Williams, meanwhile, referenced the upcoming presidential election as she said that the show, with its focus on the shadowy Bene Gesserit, raises the idea that it's "not necessarily the people who are standing at the podium, but the people who are standing a few steps behind, signaling with their fingers," are the "ones you need to watch out for."

Where does 'Dune: Prophecy' series pick up from the films?

The series picks up "on the other side of the rise of artificial intelligence," beginning in the shadow of a war that ended with all AI and thinking machines being outlawed, Schapker explained.

"Does that mean they're not floating around the universe in various ways? Who knows," she said. "But in general, humans have had to strive to fill the void of things that used to be performed by technology. Now, humans are coming to try to push the boundaries of what it means to be human forward so they can fill that gap. ... It lets us ask questions about the role of technology in a new way."

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Executive producer Jordan Goldberg added that humans have been "oppressed by technology" for so long when the series begins. But the show explores the question, "Now that humanity is free, will they destroy themselves? The Sisterhood is kind of acting as a guardrail against that."

What can 'Dune' fans expect? What will be different in 'Dune: Prophecy'?

Fans should expect to see some familiar elements from the films, including spice.

"We're showing a recreational world built around people using spice and synthetics based on spice," Goldberg said. And yes, there will be sandworms. "We were bringing all the big guns out," he said.

But one difference from the movies? Williams said she and her co-stars didn't have to brave the desert like their movie counterparts, though that's not to say they didn't have their filming challenges.

"If you're expecting sand and heat and blue skies, we're on a very damp planet, which involved a man with a backpack full of water and he'd pump it and then he'd spray us down so that we were slightly damp all the time," she said, quipping, "The other cast in Denis' films would complain about how hot it was in Jordan? It's like, yeah, well, just try being damp in a tunnel in Hungary!"

Watch the full trailer for 'Dune: Prophecy'