HBO’s “Dune: Prophecy” aired its eventful season finale on Dec. 22, proper earlier than Christmas bells rang, and it was a satisfying finish to this spinoff sequence set 10,000 years earlier than Paul Atreides’ delivery and anxious the rise of the Bene Gesserit sect.
With the Sisterhood’s considering machine smashed to bits, Emperor Corrino placing himself out of his distress, Tula embracing her enhanced son Desmond Hart, and Valya lastly touching down on Arrakis within the sixth episode titled “The Excessive-Handed Enemy,” many unfastened narrative ends and inevitable fates had been all tied up in a bow with one main thriller left unsolved that may level to the AI overlord Omnius.
Now that followers have had an opportunity to meet up with this distinctive present’s half-dozen chapters within the vacation afterglow, let’s unpack “Prophecy’s” Dec. 19 press convention which House.com attended that includes showrunner and govt producer Alison Schapker (“Fringe,” “Misplaced”) and stars Emily Watson (Valya) and Olivia Williams (Tula).
House.com: “Dune: Prophecy” is sprinkled with many tropes and overtones of traditional horror movies. May you discuss your love of supernatural and horror cinema and its place within the sequence?
Alison Schapker: Oh, yeah. Properly, I feel “Dune” is a really psychological property. And I feel horror lends itself to type of that concept of we’re plumbing type of the darkness of our personal minds or the corruption of individuals, the form of energy within the shadows, all that stuff. I feel horror is an excellent style to type of weave via. And we particularly look to horror for issues like Lila’s agony and what it will imply to have all of the ancestors awaken in you and the form of nightmare story that comes and turns into a possession story, and issues which can be nightmare tropes.
However what I additionally love about “Dune” is that among the horror will not be supernatural however is definitely rooted in a type of science. And I feel that is very attention-grabbing. I feel it type of has its personal spin on what it is doing as a result of it is all the time attempting to floor itself, I feel scientifically, so. However I feel the concept that we’d really feel worry or that we’d need to communicate to that type of nervousness that is occurring, and like Olivia mentioned, it is occurring on the college, it is form of ratcheting up over the season and horror’s extremely helpful to have in your toolbox.
Moderator: Emily and Olivia, you each spent numerous time collectively earlier than filming forming that sister relationship that is so particular on this present, and one of many questions is about how did that preparation actually assist you to, particularly as you bought to the later episodes within the season?
Emily Watson: I feel we share a lifelong type of story muscle, that, you understand, we’re like, we’re not associated, however we’re associated. We all know we’ve the identical instincts of what the story wants. We would strategy issues in barely alternative ways, however we actually have that actor’s “what is that this,” “what is that this scene telling and why are we telling it,” and let’s make that, let’s discover that.
Olivia Williams: I additionally suppose Emily recommended fairly notoriously now that we go and go to the Nationwide Portrait Gallery in London to take a look at some sisters who had some comparable dilemmas to the sisters within the “Dune: Prophecy” story. We went to take a look at portraits of Queen Elizabeth the primary, and he or she famously form of got rid of a few her cousins and sisters with the intention to get the crown. And [she] might write a letter saying, “I like you, pricey sister,” after which use the identical pen to signal that sister’s dying warrant.
So, on the time, I assumed it was a bit, nicely to be sincere, a bit eager of Emily to counsel we go to the Nationwide Portrait Gallery to analysis the position, nevertheless it got here in so helpful after we had been dealing with these tales of generational hatred in direction of one other household and sisterly bonding that goes past blood to bloody secrets and techniques.
Emily Watson: And when you end up form of on the planet of a sci-fi and also you’re out in house, simply having that one thing that feels actually rooted in historical past and actuality was very useful, I feel.
Moderator: For you, Olivia and Emily, what had been probably the most difficult points of enjoying these characters all through the sequence for you each?
Olivia Williams: Properly, it was a form of pleasure. There was a pleasure in – Emily and I’ve talked about this earlier than – form of main an organization. However it’s all the time a little bit of a shock as a result of I’m a youthful sister, and I all the time consider myself because the youngest particular person on the set, and but, have all these younger actors developing and going “it is so wonderful to work with you.” The form of euphemism was “skilled.” “You are so skilled.” What they actually imply is, “you are so outdated.” However what was an actual pleasure, and I do know Emily agrees with me, was to type of set the tone for the way the corporate acted and handled one another and had been handled, and it was a very good forged and crew environment on set.
Emily Watson: Yeah, completely. It is an actual pleasure to have that chance since you do not all the time get that. We had been primary and quantity two on the decision sheet, and for those who do not act out, then no person else can, principally.
Moderator: May you please unpack Valya’s defeat of the considering machine virus and the way did she overcome her worry and what did her imaginative and prescient of Desmond’s operation reminiscence reveal?
Alison Schapker: Properly, I feel we have seen type of this concept that this machine virus is working in a sure a part of the mind that’s triggering folks’s fears to type of manifest, and there is form of layers to it. And I feel you noticed just a little bit in episode 4 when the acolytes had been, when Tula guides them on their experiment to uncover the which means of their desires. Like, they begin out and so they’re all drawing various things, after which all of them start drawing in unison. After which it is as if Desmond’s fears turn into so current that that’s what’s overpowering everyone, and no person can get previous these two blue eyes. [It] form of awakens them as a result of the phobia is so nice.
And I feel Valya, when she goes to transmute this machine virus — Tula, thank God, is there to inform her that the secret is truly to let go. And that truly the work that Valya has to do on a mobile degree is to let go of worry, to type of transmute the worry versus the virus and to let it go. And Emily, I do know we talked about this, however this concept that Valya has held on for her entire life to fears. Fears that she precipitated her personal brother’s undoing. Fears that she would quantity to nothing. Fears that the household can be ceaselessly denied or that the loss can be interminable.
Moderator: May you discuss in regards to the alternative of Arrakis for Valya’s vacation spot and what she hopes to perform there out of your perspective?
Alison Schapker: After a season of Arrakis type of exerting its pull from afar, and whether or not that is within the economics of spice commerce or the psychological points of those visions and nightmares which can be form of imagery of Arrakis and Desmond’s previous seeping into everybody’s consciousness. To truly go and put boots on the bottom at this extremely overdetermined and form of virtually mythic “Dune” house that we all know very nicely, however we form of saved it at distance the entire season.
So, I feel it’s extremely vital that Valya’s again there, and I additionally suppose she’s again type of on the origin level of Desmond, the place he emerged from. Like, he emerged with a narrative and a delusion, and it was I am from Arrakis, and I used to be swallowed by a worm and I survived after my entire regiment was killed. I feel Valya goes to seek out out much more, on condition that she is form of again the place Desmond form of emerged as an adversary. And [it will] be attention-grabbing to see what she finds on the market.
All episodes of “Dune: Prophecy” are actually out there on HBO and streaming on Max. It has been permitted for a second season as introduced at this press convention.
