How Prince William and Prince Harry informed HBO’s ‘Dune: Prophecy’ series

A conspiracy to secure the throne. A marriage to support an alliance. Sex. Betrayal. Shocking deaths.

“No, this isn’t HBO’s last one”game of Thrones” series but it’s a TV spin-off Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” series.

Legendary big screen experience brought to the small screen”Dune: Prophecy” (airing Sunday at 9 EST/PST and streaming on Max), a six-episode prequel set 10,000 years before the blockbuster movies and Frank Herbert’s original novel. If there were movies Comparable to “Star Wars” the series is more in line with “Thrones,” with its political intrigue among morally gray characters whose stories unfold in different corners of the world — not to mention the explicit sex, which is a departure from PG-13 movies.

HBO executives aren’t insistent that the show be family-friendly or appeal to all audiences, says showrunner Alison Schapker.

“We’re very encouraged to be as complicated as we want, as adult as we want, and to inhabit the space that HBO has created for shows to be a little bit more (similar to) an R-rating on a movie. And ‘Dune’ really supports that, allowing you to explore adult material.” “

More than a century after a war against thinking machines led to the outlawing of artificial intelligence, “The Prophecy” takes viewers behind the curtain of the Bene Gesserit, a secret group of women who secretly manipulate galactic events.

At the center are Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and her sister Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams), who lead the Sisterhood of what would become the Bene Gesserit and are seen in two time periods 30 years apart.

“The series illuminates the witch phenomenon that the movie focuses on,” says Chloe Lea, who plays young Sisterhood student Lila. “What are these mysterious people? Why do they know so much, and why do we think they know so much? The show humanizes the characters. It shows that they’re complex. They’re not just witches who control everything, and they’re not the only people to be feared.”

In the films, the Harkonnens are portrayed as evil enemies; Stellan Skarsgård’s vile Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. But as Valya and Tula do terrible things, the series adds complexity to the family by suggesting that the Harkonnens have “good reason to be upset,” Williams says. They are disgraced over allegations that Valya’s great-grandfather committed war crimes, but Valya insists the allegations are false.

“In his view, they were exiled because of a lie,” Watson says. “There’s this very personal, raw anger underneath everything he does to try to control humanity’s destiny.”

This moral ambiguity makes Valya a “truly modern character” who would be at home in a down-to-earth drama series outside the sci-fi genre, says Jessica Barden, who plays her as a younger woman. “You watch the show and people do bad things all the time. But this (science fiction) genre keeps asking: ‘Are you a good guy or a bad guy?'”

‘Dune: Prophecy’ Cast, producers explain how HBO series is expanding into movies

The series draws from books by Kevin J. Anderson and Herbert’s son Brian Herbert, particularly “Sisterhood of Dune” and its sequels, but adds original characters and stories. The estate of Herbert provided notes, using his encyclopedic knowledge of the canon to contribute ideas.

Villeneuve was not directly involved in “Prophecy,” which was first announced in 2019 and went through a lengthy development process due to commitments related to the “Dune” films, but Schapker did chat with the director. “He’s excited to see what we’re going to do. I appreciated his love for filmmaking and ‘Dune,’ and it made him really happy that other creators were doing it.”

As in the movies, the sisters in “The Prophecy” carry out an elaborate plan that takes years; in this case, the sitting member of the Sisterhood by training Emperor Corrino’s (Mark Strong) daughter, Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), in her ways.

Ynez is an independent and rebellious woman who is close friends with her playboy stepbrother Constantine (Josh Heuston), whose reckless behavior causes problems. “He’s torn between meeting his father’s expectations and trying not to fall into old habits that he might become addicted to or distract from the pain,” Heuston says.

Actors worked to capture pressure on royal siblings, only one of whom is heir to the throne Prince William And Prince Harry. Heuston’s reading Harry’s memoir “The SubstituteWhile Boussnina watched interviews with them, she also reviewed footage of Harry and William as children walking behind their mother Princess Diana’s coffin.

“It’s something our characters (experience) to be in this situation and still have to live up to the expectations of being royalty and not show how you really feel on the inside,” Boussnina says.

Watson and Williams went to London’s National Portrait Gallery to see paintings of powerful women such as Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. This helped Williams think about “what you have to offer as a woman to be taken seriously by men.” … Even 20,000 years in the future, men are really afraid of what will happen when women get together,” he says.

The cast of characters includes Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason), Paul Atreides’ ancestor; the emperor’s wife, Natalya (Jodhi May); and Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel) is a mysterious soldier who makes a shocking revelation about a trip to Arrakis. Desmond’s background and motivations are unclear in the early chapters, but Fimmel was impressed by this ambiguity. “It’s always more enjoyable for an actor to keep people guessing,” he says.

However, some scenes of “Prophecy”, which focuses on an all-female group, take place without a man on screen. Lea said the opportunity to star in a series with so many strong female characters was “sadly very unique.”

“It’s such a privilege to be part of something like this that’s not about supporting women in power, even though it shouldn’t be. We need more shows like this that discuss women’s relationships, have nothing to do with men.”

This article first appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Dune: Prophecy’ cast talks real-world inspirations and ‘R-rated’ sex scenes