Prophecy Can Bring The ‘Unfilmable’ Dune Movies To Life

Key Takeaways

• Dune: Prophecy lays the groundwork for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy and future adaptations of God Emperor of Dune.
• The series introduces key characters like Valya Harkonnen and hints at the rise of Leto II Atreides.
• Villeneuve may only adapt Dune Messiah, leaving the fate of Leto II and the future of the Duniverse uncertain.

Despite its infancy, Diane Ademu-John and Alison Schapke’s Dune: Prophecy is already showing that all roads lead to Arrakis. Set some 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, the prequel series to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies looks set to put the pieces in place for his Dune: Part Three and his plans to bow out of the saga with a trilogy.

As well as Villeneuve’s franchise, David Lynch famously delivered his take on Dune in 1984, while the Sci-Fi Channel released Frank Herbert’s Dune and Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune in 2000 and 2003. The Duniverse has never gone past the events of Herbert’s Children of Dune novel in movie or TV form, but already, Dune: Prophecy is sowing the seeds for the ‘unfilmable’ God Emperor of Dune.

Dune: Prophecy Acknowledges God Emperor of Dune

Even though Dune: Prophecy is set many millennia before the Timothée Chalamet-led Dune movies, there’s already plenty of connective tissue. Baron Harrow Harkonnen (Edward Davis) is just as slippery as Dune’s Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), and Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) gives viewers a first tease of the Voice. And what’s more, there’s a nod to the controversial God Emperor of Dune.

Dune: Prophecy opens with a younger version of Valya (Jessica Barden) called to the side of a dying Mother Superior Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson). With her dying breath, Raquella says:

Red dust….red…red. it’s coming, Tiran-Arafel.

Raquella sees two glowing blue eyes, which seem to hint at the rise of Paul Atreides and the crumbling of the Bene Gesserit’s plan to control the Imperium from the shadows. However, their fear of “a holy judgment brought on by a tyrant” is a nod to Paul’s son, Leto II Atreides. While Leto II’s admirers referred to him as God Emperor, his enemies (including the Bene Gesserit) nicknamed him the Tyrant of the Known Universe.

Named after Paul’s father, Leto (played by Oscar Isaac in Dune), Leto II rules for thousands of years after a blinded Paul walks into the desert of Arrakis, never to be seen again (in a traditional sense). Leto II only appears as a child in Dune Messiah, meaning he likely won’t play a major part in Villeneuve’s trilogy. Still, a young James McAvoy played him in the Sci-Fi Channel adaptation. Leto II is one of the franchise’s most iconic characters, becoming a human-sandworm hybrid. As the Mother Superior’s dying vision also shows a giant sandworm destroying the Sisterhood temple on Wallach IX, her vision seems to foreshadow God Emperor of Dune.

Dune: Prophecy also references Tiran-Arafel, and ‘arafel’ is one of the final words spoken by Leto II before he’s assassinated in God Emperor of Dune. Before his ultimate demise, Leto II says:

Do not fear the Ixians. They can make the machines, but they no longer can make arafel. I know. I was there.

As noted by YouTuber Quinn’s Ideas, “arafel” is a Hebrew word for fog, which also represents things about God that are unknowably obscured. In the context of Dune, it’s later referred to as a “cloud-darkness of holy judgment” that’s an apocalypse for humankind. Prophecy tweaks this by adding ‘tiran’ to the start of it, again reiterating that a tyrant will be responsible for the end of days.

The Bene Gesserit are right to be worried about both Paul and Leto II, because if not for their meddling to create the Kwisatz Haderach, the latter would never have been born. Under Leto II’s rule, the Bene Gesserit have their breeding program removed from them and are rationed spice to keep them loyal to him. The Bene Gesserit eventually return to a position of power in Herbert’s penultimate book, Heretics of Dune. But as that book is set 1,500 years after Leto II’s death, the sisters are downtrodden for a long time.

Why is God Emperor of Dune ‘Unfilmable’?

Much like how HBO has continued mining Game of Thrones with prequels, talks of sequels, and a newly announced movie, it’s doubtful that Warner Bros. is going to leave the reinvigorated Dune IP here. The problem is, God Emperor of Dune and the following books present several problems. During an interview with Empire magazine, Villeneuve explained how his third movie might only adapt Dune Messiah:

After that, the books become more… esoteric.

A tease of Paul’s sister, Alia Atreides (Anya Taylor-Joy), in Dune: Part Two suggests she’ll be a major presence, like she is in the books. However, Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy looks like it will round off their story, and likely end with a blind Paul heading into the desert to be a hermit.

The movies have made it big off the pack by championing Timothee Chalamet’s Paul as its poster boy, but at its core, Paul Atreides has never been the main character of the Duniverse. Having Valya as the focus of Dune: Prophecy and moving away from House Atreides has already proved that a successful adaptation doesn’t need Muad’dib. Whether the series will be left with Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy or continued by someone else into the weirder aspects of Herbert’s book and the sequels that were written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson remains to be seen.

Star Wars has already proved it doesn’t need Luke Skywalker to survive, and with a whole new trilogy pitching Daisy Ridley’s Rey as its most valuable asset, there’s life beyond Paul Atreides. Still, it would be awkward to introduce Leto II and his sister, Ghanima, without continuing their arcs in God Emperor of Dune. Star Wars managed to successfully transfer its legacy characters into the sequels. While there’s something of a continuation thanks to Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho in his ghola (clone) form alongside the Bene Tleilax, readers tend to agree with Villeneuve that things get increasingly ‘niche’ after Messiah.

Even if the studio isn’t willing to take a gamble on the ‘unfilmable’ God Emperor of Dune, foreshadowing and visions in the likes of Dune: Prophecy and Dune: Part Three serve as tasty Easter eggs for those who are disappointed that they might never see the later books turned into live-action outings. Then again, if the Dune movies keep making more and more money at the box office while Prophecy reminds everyone that God Emperor of Dune exists, audiences might eventually be forced to sit through two and a half hours of a CGI worm.