The Bene Gesserit Are Girlbossing to Power
10,000 years before Timothée Chalamet sandwormed his way into Zendaya’s heart, a pair of girlbosses steeped in mysticism gaslit and gate-kept their way to power. Dune: Prophecy, HBO’s prequel to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies, tells the origin story of the fabled Bene Gesserit sect, a religious order that infiltrated galactic politics and harnessed genetic science in an effort to ward off apocalypse. Based on Sisterhood of Dune, a novel by Brian Herbert, the son of Dune author Frank Herbet, the series stars Emily Watson and Olivia Williams as the Gesserit’s founding mothers. “You wish to serve the great houses and shape the flow of power,” Valya Harkonnen (Watson) preaches in the trailer. “You must first exert power over yourself.” We see the early sect march in gothic nun habits or minimalist gray long-sleeve gowns along interiors that meld the sci-fi and the medieval. “Our hands our poised on the levers of power, yet our grasp on it is still fragile,” Valya tells Tula Harkonnen (Williams). “I am trying to protect the imperium.” Witness her valiant efforts when the series premieres in November.
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