“Dune: Prophecy” hasn’t even dropped yet, and already people are calling it “Game of Thrones” in space – and that’s fine with showrunner Alison Schapker.
The latest HBO series takes the popular sci-fi series and launches it back 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, to the rise of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood and a galaxy still reeling only 100 years removed from the war with the “thinking machines.” The show is much less deserts, worms and hallucinogens, and more politicking for power – much like other HBO powerhouse series, “Game of Thrones” and “House of the Dragon.” And Schapker is good with that comparison, to a certain extent.
“‘Game of Thrones’ was an amazing show to watch, a thrilling show. It’s a tremendous compliment to be compared to it in any way,” Schapker told TheWrap. “So I take that as nothing more than, ‘Oh wow, we’re playing in the big leagues.'”
While taking the comparisons positively, she was quick to add that the franchise and show will still have a lot going for it that makes it unique – to say nothing of the fact that it was Frank Herbert’s original novel that was doing the inspiring for many of the biggest franchises out there today.
“It may be a very apt comparison,” she said. “On the other hand, I do think there’s a lot of aspects to ‘Dune’ that are specific to ‘Dune,’ and I hope that when we get beyond just the sense that who’s on the throne matters – which it does – that there’s other aspects that’ll start to differentiate. The ‘in space’ part should get to be more rounded out for people.”
Riding on the resurgence in franchise popularity thanks to the two films directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothée Chalamet, “Dune: Prophecy” jumps the story to TV, which Schapker said added many storytelling benefits.
“One of the things that TV can do is just dwell a lot more on the smaller moments with characters, or we get to be with more characters,” she said. “We’re very much rooted in the Harkonnen sisters, but we are not only rooted in them, we’re really trying to create a world around them that’s very alive with characters you’re going to care about. Everyone on the board should have a way in for somebody to root for, to empathize with, to feel bad, to think is controversial in some way. I just think that TV gives you more time to do that.”
At the heart of the show and all those characters are Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and her sister Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams) – high-ranking members of the Bene Gesserit. Schapker said diving into the earlier days of the Harkonnen family before they devolve into the monsters familiar to the original text and film was the real excitement of the season.
“I think that to see the bald, sort of monstrous Harkonnens of the future start from a place of, let’s at least say, solid gray area — to just see how that begins to form, I think makes the heart, and it’s more interesting in the future,” she shared.
“Dune: Prophecy” premieres Sunday on HBO and streams on Max.
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