Building a genre series from scratch is tough. Millions of devoted fans and detailed source material can’t guarantee an audience for shows like “Game of Thrones” or “The Rings of Power” — or for their new cousin, “ Dune: Prophecy .” Developed by Diane Ademu-John and Alison Schapker, this prequel to Denis Villenueve’s “Dune” film series doesn’t require watching either movie.
As established in Episode 1, “The Hidden Hand,” written by Ademu-John and directed by Anna Foerster, these events took place more than 10,000 years before Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya found themselves on the planet Arrakis, focused on the mysterious Sisterhood known as the Bene-Gesserit. Episode 1 is tasked with dense exposition. In the century after mankind defeated technology (“thinking machines”), Valya Harkonnen (Jessica Barden) joins the Sisterhood, a group of “women unafraid of their power.
” The Sisters are truthsayers, assigned to powerful houses, and Valya soon becomes a favorite of Mother Superior, Raquella (Cathy Tyson). After Raquella shares a vision on her deathbed, Valya tasks herself and the others with putting a Sister on the throne to ensure their safety in the years to come. After the exegesis, “The Hidden Hand” is fairly straightforward.
We learn that 30 years later, Valya (Emily Watson) leads the Sisters while they are on the cusp of a marital alliance critical to Raquella’s master plan. Ynez Corrino (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) will marry Pruwet R.