When Does Dune: Prophecy Take Place? How is it Connected to the Dune Movies?

HBO’s sci-fi drama series, ‘Dune: Prophecy,’ follows the creation and rise of the Bene Gesserit while laying the grounds for its desire for power and how it manipulates people and events of the Imperium to get that power. The story centers around the Harkonnen sisters, Valya and Tula, who vow to save the institution they have given their lives to. It doesn’t matter what the cost is. As the six-episode season unfolds, we explore in-depth all the things that had already been laid down in Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ films. The connection between the movies and the series makes the latter even more exciting to watch.

Dune: Prophecy is a Prequel But Doesn’t Directly Connect to Villeneuve’s Dune

The world of ‘Dune’ was created by Frank Herbert in 1965 with the publication of ‘Dune,’ which serves as the inspiration for the 2021 and 2024 ‘Dune’ movies. Over the years, Herbert continued to expand that world with five more books, all of which introduced the audience to other elements that had been barely mentioned in the first book. Following Herbert’s death, his son, Brian, collaborated with Kevin J. Anderson. The duo worked primarily on prequels. Their additional works and the series have led the number of books to stand at 23 so far. This shows the expanse of the universe that Herbert created and Brian and Kevin later expanded upon. This also means that there are quite a lot of stories that are yet to be adapted, and with ‘Dune: Prophecy,’ HBO does exactly that.

To the question of whether you need to watch ‘Dune’ movies before watching ‘Dune: Prophecy,’ the answer is not necessarily. The stories, while set in the same universe, take place more than ten thousand years apart, which allows the connection between the two projects to exist but not to intertwine them such that they have to be boxed together. The movies focus primarily on Paul Atreides and majorly take place in Arrakis. The show turns the focus on the Harkonnens, who serve as the primary villains in the movies. The show also turns the spotlight entirely on the Bene Gesserit, giving us much more context of their functioning and setting the ground for the things that eventually influence Paul’s rise.

The show borrows material from the second prequel series, ‘Great Schools of Dune,’ by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. It consists of 2012’s ‘Sisterhood of Dune,’ 2014’s ‘Mentats of Dune,’ and 2016’s ‘Navigators of Dune.’ While the source material serves as its bible, the HBO series doesn’t entirely stay faithful to the books. Instead, it picks its own points of reference, focusing on certain characters that have a major presence in the books while also creating new characters that become instrumental in the advancement of the plot. The series also references the events that Frank Herbert first mentioned in ‘Dune,’ which were later expanded by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson in the first prequel trilogy, ‘Legends of Dune,’ which focuses heavily on the war between humans and the thinking machines.

Despite the huge gap in time between the movies and the show, the creators have found ways to keep the connection alive with references that fans can draw upon while also receiving new information about the subjects of the new story. For example, the show references the bad blood between the Atreides and the Harkonnen houses. It also emphasizes the importance of Arrakis and the trouble that the planet brewed for the Imperium, especially with the Fremen revolting against anyone trying to control them.

In the same vein, while the Bene Gesserit is in its early days, the show still references its obsession with controlling the genetic lineage and exerting control by wanting one of its own on the throne. A lot of technology is also the same, some a bit primitive compared to what we see in the movies, but enough to form a strong connection between the two. Through all this, the creators of the show were able to keep the connection alive but still have a lot of room to explore their own plot lines and character arcs without being bogged down by the weight of what the movies do.

Read More: How Old is Paul Atreides in Dune?

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When Does Dune: Prophecy Take Place? How is it Connected to the Dune Movies?

Dune: Prophecy is a Prequel But Doesn’t Directly Connect to Villeneuve’s Dune

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