‘Dune: Prophecy’ is unmissable TV

Prepare to be swept away into a universe of intrigue, power struggles, and survival with Dune: Prophecy, express from the US every Monday at 3am and weekly on Monday nights at 9pm, on M-Net (DStv Channel 101).

This highly anticipated series takes viewers on a journey to a world filled with political drama, ecological conflict and characters grappling with their destinies – set 10 000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides, as chronicled in Dune. Dune: Prophecy is more than just a reimagining of a classic story – it is an expansion of one that has captivated audiences for nearly seven decades, rooted in the Sisterhood of Dune novel, written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson and the Great Schools of Dune trilogy, inspired by Frank Herbert’s legendary novels.

At the heart of Dune: Prophecy is the story of the two Harkonnen sisters (played by Emily Watson and Olivia Williams), as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind and establish the fabled sect that becomes known as the Bene Gesserit.

Showrunner Alison Schapker says that, to her, good genre is always based on characters that you relate to and a story that you can sink your teeth into. “On top of that, you get to have the spectacle of world-building, or the wish fulfilment of powers.

“What’s very interesting about the Sisterhood and about the sisters on our show, who go on to found the sect of the Bene Gesserit is that they appear to have superpowers but actually, we’re talking 10 000 years from now and human evolution has continued,” she explains. “These are women pushing the boundaries of what the human brain and body can do.”

The Guardian says that “Dune: Prophecy looks great, with its crisp monochrome styling and its nicely alien architecture, the latter based around the hairpin curves evoked by the franchise’s title font. The world it builds – intense, intellectual, unforgivingly meritocratic and yet tinged with the unpredictable and supernatural – is a template for a bracingly different kind of science fiction”.

Variety proclaims that “… at its best, the show does justice to the intricate politics and ethical debates that form a cornerstone of Frank Herbert’s fictional universe” and, here at home, Daily Maverick reviewer Kervyn Cloete praises the production values, “with expensive CG visuals for spacecraft and palatial worlds, and meticulously constructed sets mimicking the sci-fi brutalist architecture [Denis] Villeneuve used in his [Dune] films”.

Says Schapker: “We very much wanted to go to different corners of the Dune universe. Arrakis will always be a planet that exerts enormous pull because of the dependence of our universe on spice, which is only found on Arrakis. We are not locating our story there in season one, and we are more feeling the pull of Arrakis from afar.

“We’re exploring Salusa Secundus, which is our Imperial home planet, and Wallach IX, where the Sisterhood has its school and its institution. And we’re going to Lankiveil, which is the Harkonnen’s home planet, which is an icy planet.

“The pleasure of watching television is being transported somewhere new so it’s fun to explore this huge universe. There’s also a psychological component as Dune has a hallucinogenic vibe at times. We wanted to make sure that the mind was alive and that we could realise the psychological landscape of our characters, too.”

The series stars Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel, Jodhi May, Mark Strong, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina and Josh Heuston. Don’t miss the chance to join the adventure and witness a story that is as relevant as it is timeless.

Catch Dune: Prophecy Express from the US at 3am on M-Net (Channel 101) and at 9pm on the same day, each week. The series will also be available on DStv Catch Up and DStv Stream. Visit the M-Net Website and join the conversation on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.