While Dune: Prophecy is a (very loose) literary adaptation, the HBO series ultimately defines itself through its ties to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films. That in itself is not a problem. 2024 has seen the release of a now standard slate of shows under the labels Star Wars, DC, and Marvel (to name a few) – all spin-offs, prequels, sequels, or reboots of franchises that have their origins on film. DC Studios has relaunched its cinematic universe of a streaming joint!
Yet Dune: Prophecy is inherently different from these other minor descendants of big-screen blockbusters because, unlike them, its film roots are baked into its DNA. And now the dust (or should that be spice?) has settled Dune: Prophecy Season 1, it’s painfully clear that trying to diminish Dune’s inherently cinematic nature—its sheer “greatness”—is a task that even Lisan al Gaib himself couldn’t accomplish.
(Ed. remark: This post contains spoilers for Dune: Propheticseason 1.)
At this point, for a long time Dune devotees are likely to cry foul. “What about the two miniseries, Dune by Frank Herbert And Frank Herbert’s Children of Dunethat aired on Syfy in the 2000s?” these fans ask. “Were they not successful?” And indeed they were, both critically and commercially; this Dune adaptations remain among Syfy’s most-watched original productions to this day. But the point is: those productions were built from the ground up for the small screen. Sure, her strove to cinematic sensibilities, but there’s no doubting their made-for-TV origins. The acting is uneven, the scripts have a deliberate pace and lots of exposition, and above all, the spectacle is limited by a basic cable budget.
In that sense, Dune: Prophecy is arguably much closer to cinema than these previous efforts. Certainly, the HBO series’ visual effects, costumes, and sets are light years ahead of anything Syfy has assembled. The performances are also more consistent; the divide between Hollywood veterans and TV regulars is less pronounced. And showrunner Alison Schapker and her team follow the storyline of the Great Schools of Dune trilogy far less slavishly than the step-by-step approach to the source text of the Syfy adaptations, Frank Herbert’s first three novels. Still, Dune: Prophecy season 1 is a claustrophobic, small-scale affair. Valya Harkonnen and her allies and enemies move and act primarily in the back rooms and corridors of the universe. The only major action set piece we get, a flashback to Butlerian Jihad, is a handful of shots during the prologue. Even the play’s thematic content—ostensibly a deep dive into power, truth, and systems of control—is treated perfunctorily, as if it’s merely meant to liven up a relatively unimportant story. It all feels so limited; it feels like television.
Compare this with Villeneuve’s Dune: part one And Part two. Here we have two of the greatest films ever. The cast is unanimously excellent. Storytelling (especially in Part two) moves at a fast clip and keeps expository dialogue to a minimum. The production values are exactly what you would expect from a combined price tag of over $350 million. The scope is mythical. The themes, which cover everything from the dangers of superhero-type leaders to free will versus determinism, are painted in vibrant, operatic strokes. Watching these films – especially in the large IMAX format – goes beyond mere immersion and borders on a religious experience. It’s a vision of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi universe that defiantly focuses on the theatrical experience in an age of smartphones and streaming platforms. “Honestly, it’s worth watching Dune on a television, the best analogy I can compare it to is driving a speedboat in your bathtub,” Villeneuve told Total film in 2021. “To me it’s ridiculous. It is a film made as a tribute to the big screen experience.”
In short? The Dune franchise under Villeneuve is incompatible with TV – which could explain why the Canadian filmmaker went ahead with it Dune: Prophecy before the cameras rolled. (For what it’s worth, the official reason is what Villeneuve bent over backwards to focus on Dune: part twothe sequel, Dune Messiah). The gap between film and television – even prestige television – is simply too great. Not that Dune: Prophecy season 1 is doing itself a lot of favors. It is to Schapker’s credit, Prophecy draws on the strengths of TV as a medium, rightly recognizing the impossibility of directly mapping a cinematic blueprint into six hour-long episodes. But the way this is being rolled out is so accessible (and sometimes cheap-feeling) that it is the Dunethe world, rather than expanding it.
Take Desmond Hart’s plot thread. This mysterious box is finally (partially) opened in episode 6, but what’s inside – optic nerve implants and shadowy Bene Gesserit haters – is strange enough for the mundane. There is none of the intellectual and emotional appeal of it Dune: part one And Part two protagonist Paul Atreides gives the green light to galactic genocide for the greater good. It’s more like a plot-oriented season finale reveal you’d expect from, say Agents of SHIELD or Zoom. No shade at either show; it’s just that no one would mistake it for a cinema-quality epic. Likewise, the procedural elements of Episode 5, involving Tula Harkonnen, Raquella/Lila, and a generic “science lab” set, are the kind of scenes that would take place off-screen in Villeneuve’s films, and for good reason; CSI: Wallach IX is decidedly less compelling than the sheer grandeur of Paul’s subversive hero’s journey. And let’s not forget Season 1’s broader dual-timeline story, which makes an already busy story even busier (and slower) – while simultaneously filling in holes in the Dune mythos that arguably worked better and remained unexplained.
These flaws would be enough to rock most shows. But when you force them into the Dune universe, they become twice as noticeable. Because they not only tarnish the franchise’s brand, but also diminish its outsized ambitions. Where Dune: part one And Part two has delivered a cosmos-wide, multi-millennial master plan, Prophecy‘s first season gave us sub-Game of Thrones intrigue and a vaguely defined threat to the future of the Sisterhood (a moot point, in fact, thanks to the films), most of which takes place in the same limited locations. Schapker and co. fuss about the how and why of it all, and fails to understand it in any more detail Dune: Prophecy The further away it gets from Villeneuve’s (and Herbert’s) big ideas – so fundamental to this clever sci-fi saga – it becomes. For all its spaceships, Shai-Hulud cameos and funky shoes, Dune: Prophecy it just doesn’t work feeling like Dune.
Again, the chances of that happening – of each TV program sits comfortably next to Dune: part one And Part two — were always stacked against HBO. Even if Dune: Prophecy Season 1 nailed every aspect of its execution, even if it had been one of the best shows of the year, it still wouldn’t have been a movie. As a result, people find out Prophecy would always have to scale back the cinematic essence of its big-screen counterparts to produce something more TV-friendly. But that’s the problem: shrinking Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is like trying to preserve a snowflake in the desert world that gives the franchise its name – doomed from the start.