”Dune: The Sisterhood” lifts the veil of mystery around Bene Gesserit. Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming series.
Denis Villeneuve‘s 2021 blockbuster has not only given Dune the adaptation it deserves but also gained many new fans for Frank Herbert‘s novels, who are eager to learn more about the Great Houses, as well as the true masters of fate in the Imperium, the Bene Gesserit.
What Is Dune: The Sisterhood?
“Dune: The Sisterhood” will be HBO‘s direct-to-streaming TV series, telling the story of the Bene Gesserit, a religious and magical order of female “witches” in the Dune canon.
The series was first greenlit in 2019 with screenwriter Jon Spaihts on board as showrunner. He, however, was replaced with Diane Ademu-John in 2021, who previously produced series like Netflix‘s “The Haunting of Bly Manor”, The CW‘s “The Vampire Diaries” and Fox’s “Empire”.
The series is currently in active development. Filming is expected to start in Ireland and once again in Budapest, Hungary, where both of Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune movies were previously filmed.
What Can We Expect From Dune: The Sisterhood?
Fans of the books are well aware that the Bene Gesserit rose after the Butlerian Jihad, an event in Dune‘s prehistory when humans rebelled against an all-controlling artificial intelligence (explaining why both robots and artificial intelligence are non-existent throughout the events of the movies). As per the official synopsis of the series, the story will take place eighty-three years after the last thinking machine was destroyed in the Battle of Corrin — after Faykan Butler took the name Corrino and made himself the first Emperor of a new Empire.
In this era of changes, war hero Vorian Atreides turned his back on politics. Descendants of Abulurd Harkonnen Griffen and Valya vowed revenge against Vor, blaming him for the decline of their fortunes. Meanwhile, Raquella Berto-Anirul founded the Bene Gesserit School on the jungle planet of Rossak as the first Reverend Mother.
Descendants of Aurelius Venport create Venport Holdings with the help of mutated, spice-saturated Navigators, while Gilbertus Albans, who hides an unbelievable secret, teaches humans to become Mentats.
The Butlerian movement, fanatically opposed to all forms of ‘dangerous technology’, is led by Manford Torondo and his Swordmaster, Anari Idaho. After defeating the thinking machines, they begin to sweep through the known universe in mobs, destroying everything in their path.
When Will Dune: The Sisterhood Be Released?
“Dune: The Sisterhood” was once planned for 2020 but now a date sometime in 2023 seems more likely even though IMDb lists “2022” as the official release date. With Denis Villeneuve‘s “Dune: Part Two” hitting cinemas in October 2023, it would be interesting to compare the two different eras in the world of Dune.
