Why Dune: Prophecy's focus on sisterhood is revolutionary for the sci-fi genre

HBO's prequel series to the Dune films, available on OSN in the Middle East, redefines the strong female character

Faoileann Cunningham, left, plays Sister Jen in the series Dune: Prophecy. Photo: Warner Brothers

As genres, science fiction and fantasy have always been a bit of a boy’s club. Paperback book covers feature muscled men wielding swords or space guns, while blockbuster movies are ensconced in machismo. Even the Dune films, in which the most powerful beings in the galaxy are a clandestine sisterhood called the Bene Gesserit, culminated in a sword fight between two grunting young men.

That’s why Dune: Prophecy, a prequel series set 10,000 years before the events of the films, still feels so revolutionary. Chronicling the events that led to the the founding of the Bene Gesserit, this is a show that features almost entirely women as lead characters – all of whom are forces to be reckoned with. It’s classic sci fi of the grandest order – think Game of Thrones in space – but even now, it feels like a true step forward.

“Honestly, the Bene Gesserit have always been my favourite part of Dune,” actress Faoileann Cunningham, who plays Sister Jen in the series, tells The National.

”To be quite honest with you, I’ve watched both Dune movies 10 times each, and I will never forget that scene where the Bene Gesserit put Timothee Chalamet’s hand in the black box. I was in the cinema, tense as can be, thinking that he's going to die. This dude is gone. He's a goner.

“And I thought, if I ever get an opportunity to play one of those badass women, I want that more than anything.”

Part of what makes the Bene Gesserit so compelling is that they are so-called strong female characters, but their strength is not presented in a chiseled physique and a masculine demeanour, as we’ve seen from such characters as Ellen Ripley in Alien and Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The sisterhood’s strength operates on a much subtler, more potent, wavelength.

In the Dune films, the Bene Gesserit are basically supernatural beings, who have spent thousands of years controlling the outcome of events and using their meticulously cultivated powers to effect the world around them. When we meet them in Dune: Prophecy, they are just beginning to understand their power.

“These women are training in mystical ways to control their bodies on a molecular level,” says Aoife Hinds, who plays Sister Emeline. “To me, I was thinking about how, in parallel, this really represents the mental strength of women, and their relationship with their bodies.

“This show explores what women are capable of, and extending it to something that’s an imaginary extension of what women have to do and come up against. This is fantastical for sure, but there’s truth in it,” she continues.

The world of Dune originated in author Frank Herbert’s book, published in 1965. Director Denis Villeneuve’s first two Dune films are based only on that text, but the world extends far beyond it, with six books by Herbert and an additional 17 books by his son Brian and author Kevin J Anderson. Somewhat divisively amongst the series’s passionate fans, Dune: Prophecy draws inspiration mostly from those latter works.

In making it, the cast and crew very consciously didn’t try to get bogged down in the minute details of the lore and instead focused on making a quality television show with fully realised characters.

“The world of Dune is endless. It’s this amazing thing, and fans have really helped build out that world. And we had to get to a point where we relinquished that, and tried to focus on human relationships and the complexity therein,” says Cunningham.

“There’s this epic, grand situation happening around these characters, but this isn’t just about finding links into this massive story, because ultimately, this is a story about humanity. It’s wonderful to get absorbed in this world because there’s a potential to meet your own humanity in the middle of it.”

Part of what makes Dune so interesting is that its exploration of what it means to be human comes years after a war with artificial intelligence. In Dune: Prophecy, that was is still recent, and there are “thinking machines” still around – leading to one of the show’s most memorable scenes.

“To me, what makes that scene so interesting is not the thinking machine itself. It’s seeing everyone react to it, and have to decide what to do with it. Man versus machine is one thing, but people and relationships and confronting our own failings is a much more complicated conversation,” says Cunningham. “We’re lucky that the show’s creator has built a show that allows us the space to explore all that over six hours.”

Episodes of Dune: Prophecy are released weekly on OSN+ across the Middle East