Dune: Prophecy: Here’s Your ‘Who Are These People’ Guide to HBO’s Spiced-Up Dune Prequel

So. Let’s pause for a recap: Valya Harkonnen, ancestor of the main villains in the films, is one of the founding leaders of the Truthsayers/Bene Gesserit, the witchy puppet masters of the franchise. She’s finessing her order’s way into the Imperial dynasty, House Corrino, who will lead the galaxy until Timothée makes Walken bend the knee in Dune: Part II. No real sign of House Atreides yet. And sorry to Zendaya fans—while we spot a Fremen in episode 1, we likely won’t see any ancestors of her character Chani, a true woman of the people, in HBO’s courtly intrigue drama.

All this lines up nicely with Villeneuve’s films, and, as a bonus, is fairly consistent with canon. That’s not surprising, as Kevin J. Anderson is a credited producer on the project (he was also a creative consultant, or loremaster, on Villeneuve’s films). Anderson co-wrote all 15 (yes, 15) Dune prequel novels with Frank Herbert’s son Brian, and the series appears to be following their Great Schools of Dune trilogy, particularly Sisterhood of Dune.

If there’s an X factor in Dune: Prophecy, it’s Desmond Hart, the mysterious soldier played by Travis Fimmel of Vikings fame. He returns to Salusa Secundus after surviving an ambush on Arrakis—the planet where the main films are set. As your Big Dune Guy, I have racked my brains and come up short—I’m not sure who this guy is, but he’s very clearly up to something, sidling up to the Emperor with promises of service. Call him Space Rasputin.

Hart is a reminder of what everything in this world is all about. It’s called Dune, after all. The planet Dune, AKA Arrakis, is the only source of the spice melange, the universe’s most important commodity. People use it as a food product, but it’s also a powerful psychedelic and an essential resource for space travel. Imagine you have one substance that’s like cinnamon, psilocybin, and crude oil underpinning the global economy, and you had to supply the entire earth from one deposit in New Zealand. It would be complicated. That’s why Corrino is marrying off to Ynez—to broker an alliance that will give him the military strength to pacify Arrakis. And it’s why people listen when Hart returns from the desert whispering of conspiracy and the supernatural.

The world of Dune—with its giant worms, religious cults, and funky neologisms—is famously weird, but HBO seems to have pulled out the political machinations and twisted families in the franchise’s core. If you can keep your eye on the players, you can enjoy the drama without knowing the lingo or how Chalamet fits in. But Dune rewards those who dive into the strange, and the show seems poised to go deep.