Dune: The Sisterhood: Everything We Know About the Bene Gesserit Series on HBO Max

Dune: The Sisterhood is going to expand the world of Frank Herbert‘s novels. It is a series that is already being developed for HBO Max and that, according to rumors, is going to focus on the enigmatic and powerful Bene Gesserit of the novels. Denis Villeneuve has already broken the curse of Dune with a huge, impressive film, with perfect and mysterious cinematography that immerses you in the dreams of Paul Atreides and leads you to discover distant planets and revealed that he has plans for at least a second part where You will be able to see more of the character of Chani (Zendaya), who appears for just 7 minutes in this first part.

But the world of Dune is huge and there are many characters with their own complex stories, so in addition to the films about the mission of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), Herbert’s story will also come to streaming to let us see more about the mysterious matriarchal order made up of women who have superhuman abilities (and who have a greater influence in the empire than it seems).

What Will Dune: The Sisterhood Be About?

According to Nerdist, the series description reads: Set 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides, Dune: The Sisterhood follows the Harkonnen Sisters as they battle the forces that threaten the future of humanity and establish the legendary sect known as Bene Gesserit. The series was ordered in 2019 and will be a kind of prequel to the Denis Villeneuve film that will focus on the Bene Gesserit, which in the books is described as an order made up of nuns, spies, scientists and theologians with superhuman abilities that include mind control, hyper-awareness and collective memory.

Lady Jessica, the mother of Paul Atreides, is a Bene Gesserit, and she teaches her son to use a special voice that allows them to force people to do what they are told. The Bene Gesserit are The Sisterhood and, according to Herbert’s story, they use their special abilities to help humanity and guide it towards the future they have planned, and as part of that they are often advisors, wives, or concubines. of the leaders of the Great Houses (such as the Atreides) and seek to create alliances that help them achieve their goals, which are not exactly known.

The Bene Gesserit creed appears in the book Children of Dune, where Herbert writes:

“Religion is the emulation of the adult by the child. Religion is the encystment of past beliefs: mythology, which is conjecture, the hidden assumptions of trust in the universe, those pronouncements that men have made in search of personal power, all mixed with shreds of enlightenment. And always the last unspoken commandment is “Thou shalt not question!” But we question. We break that commandment as a matter of course. The work we have set out to do is the liberation of the imagination, the harnessing of the imagination for humanity’s deepest sense of creativity”.

We know that Denis Villeneuve is going to direct the pilot of the series and Jon Spaihts, co-writer of the Dune script, is going to write the story, so we can assume that the events of the series are not going to be too far removed from the events of the movie. Villeneuve said: “The Bene Gesserit has always fascinated me. Centering a series around that powerful order of women seemed not only relevant and inspiring but also a dynamic setting for the television series.”

For its part, The Hollywood Reporter said that: “Herbert’s novel Dune examines a future in which humanity has spread across the galaxy to thousands of worlds, all ruled by the Padishah Emperor, The Empire. Dune: The Sisterhood takes place in the same universe and explores the future through the eyes of a mysterious order of women: the Bene Gesserit. Gifted with abilities from their mastery of body and mind, the Bene Gesserit move expertly through feudal politics and Imperial intrigue, pursuing plans of their own that ultimately lead them to the enigmatic planet of Arrakis, known to its inhabitants as Dune”.

Dune: The Sisterhood: Who are the Cast?

The series may show us at some point (perhaps not in the first season) more about the character of Lady Jessica and her arrival at the Atreides house. Villeneuve declined to comment, but Rebecca Ferguson, who plays her in the film, said that she was free to do the filming and that she would like to be a part of the project. If that’s the case, we could see Charlotte Rampling once again as Mother Superior Mohiam, who in the novels tests Paul to determine if she could be the character prophesied about her.

The series follows the Harkonnen sisters, who are played by Emily Watson (Red Dragon) and Shirley Henderson (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker), who dedicate themselves to combating an evil force in the universe and eventually go on to find what is known as such as the all-female order of the Bene Gesserit, who come primarily from powerful families. The sisters are named after Valya Harkonnen and Tula Harkonnen.

The Sisterhood also features Mark Strong, Jade Anouka, Chris Mason, Travis Fimmel, Indira Varma, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Faoileann Cunningham, Aoife Hinds, and Chloe Lea, Variety reports.

Strong is Emperor Javicco Corrino, who finds himself in charge of the empire, Anouka is a member of The Sisterhood who has a dark secret, Chris Mason is Keiran Atreides (a skilled warrior who forms a connection to the royal family), and Varma is Natalya, the emperor’s wife, who helped unify the empire with her marriage. Also, the project was joined by Josh Heuston and Edward Davis. Heuston plays the emperor’s illegitimate son, named Constantine, while Davis is Harrow Harkonnen, a politician seeking to lead his family to glory.