‘Dune: Prophecy’: How Showrunner Alison Schapker Approached the Show

• HBO’s “Dune: Prophecy” explores the origins of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood.
• The show is loosely based on a “Dune” prequel novel but expands past its scope.
• Showrunner Alison Schapker spoke with BI about bringing the franchise to the small screen.

“Dune: Prophecy” goes way back, thousands of years into the history of the powerful women who shaped the history of the entire “Dune” universe.

“Any ‘Dune’ fan knows it’s just so endlessly deep in its lore, and its worldbuilding, and its specificity,” showrunner Alison Schapker told Business Insider. “But for new fans who are coming in, I feel like the best way to discover a world is always through your characters.”

The HBO prequel series focuses on the origins of the Bene Gesserit, the shadowy organization responsible for a breeding program meant to bring about a messiah known as the Kwisatz Haderach. In Frank Herbert’s original novel and Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptations, that messiah is Paul Atreides (played by Timothée Chalamet in the Villeneuve movies), a young man who shapes the history of the Imperium.

“Prophecy” is loosely based on “Sisterhood of Dune,” a novel with the same premise co-authored by Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson. It follows Valya and Tula Harkonnen, sisters from a then-disgraced family — not the powerhouse the Harkonnens are in Villeneuve’s films — who shape the development of the Sisterhood 10,000 years before Paul’s birth.

The prequel novel served as a jumping-off point, but the creative team had free rein to build on the story, creating new characters and twists along the way. It was a challenge that Schapker, a sci-fi veteran known for her previous work on “Westworld” and “Altered Carbon,” enthusiastically approached.

Schapker spoke with BI about adapting the vastness of “Dune” for the small screen, which involved juggling interpersonal drama, science fiction scope, and multiple timelines to tell the Sisterhood’s story.

You were brought onto “Dune: Prophecy” after it had already been in development. How did you approach it?

This was a corner of the “Dune” universe that I really dove into. I was much more familiar with Frank Herbert’s vision of “Dune.” Over the years I’ve always been on the lookout for “Dune.” But then obviously, Denis’ films come along, and I think unlocked it in a new way for fans and new people, and just is so elegant, so immersive, so artistically rich.

I approach every project the same way. I want to look at everything that’s there, everything I inherit, and build upon it, and deepen it, and prune it, and just continue the process of crafting story. We’re only six episodes — I would say these are very robust, full hours of television, and there’s a lot of discovery that goes on as you’re doing it, which is really just the best.

This show has to do a lot of exposition for “Dune” in a very short timeframe, especially for newcomers. What was top of mind for you when it came to setting things up in the first episode?

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson in their novels were not just looking at the origins of the Bene Gesserit, but they put two Harkonnen sisters right in the middle of it all. I felt like that was so exciting as a “Dune” fan, as a writer to explore, “Okay, what does it mean that this organization that’s going to have such influence had a Harkonnen shepherding it? What does that tell us about the Harkonnens, and what does that tell us about the sisterhood?”

It was really fun to have this familial sisterhood between Valya Harkonnen and Tula Harkonnen at the center of a larger sisterhood with all the women at the school. That baked-in choice I thought was so strong, and the premise unfolded from there.

Telling the sisters’ story requires two different timelines in the show, with younger and older versions of both Valya and Tula. How did you manage that, and craft the throughline of their relationship in both eras?

I feel like we’re all a product of our past selves, and our history over time. The Bene Gesserit and the sisterhood, at this time period, they’re big on long-term plans, and eventually, they’re going to put into motion a plan that would last many thousands of years.

Part of it begins when Valya Harkonnen comes into control of the sisterhood, when she’s a young woman played by Jessica Barden. That is very much the time period of the books. So when we were doing a direct adaptation, a lot of that is this younger Valya Harkonnen and her rise to power in the sisterhood.

But we also wanted to have room to create a rich television series, and see an older Valya, played by Emily Watson, a little more in control — where she took the sisterhood, and then how she was tested as part of a larger exploration of how it went from the Sisterhood to the Bene Gesserit. We wanted to look at the organization over time.

That’s the new stuff we were extrapolating. We were doing it in conjunction with the Herbert Estate, but it allowed us some room to create and bring in some new events and characters.

In this show, you have that grounded familial relationship, but also the space opera scope of a “Dune” property. How do you balance that?

That is my joy. That’s everything I want.

Obviously, we’re never going to have an IMAX screen — but I do think “Dune” warrants an epic, but intimate juxtaposition, because it is asking you to think about time and worlds and politics and the impact of things like war, and power, and nature.

I think the epicness really helps those themes come through. It puts you in your place almost as a small piece of something larger. I feel like the humanity of it is woven into this bigger tapestry of the universe, and so I think some of the epicness really helps that feeling.

Early on in the development of this series, there was a push to bring in a female showrunner. I’m curious about how you’ve reckoned with that side of the discourse, and how any of it plays into this being a show functionally driven by women on the page and behind the camera.

It’s incredibly rewarding. First of all, I think we have to start with “Dune” and the fact that women are players in such a pivotal and real way. Right in the narrative, you’re brought on board as an equal in terms of who’s pulling the strings, and the Imperium. That’s just exciting. As a creator, of course I want my women characters to be having an impact on story as much as anyone else.

But yes, there’s nothing better than feeling all your characters have a specificity and a voice. It was really fun to center the Bene Gesserit, and the sisterhood, and the Harkonnen sisters.

At the same time, it’s certainly not out to be a treatise on gender. I had a lot of discussions with the Herbert estate. Just that idea that he’s always thinking about how social structures and social forces might change, but be familiar even while utterly different.

“Dune: Prophecy” airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and streams on Max.