Dune: Prophecy Season 1 ends in a way that neatly sets the table for Season 2. Thankfully, HBO has already confirmed that Dune: Prophecy Season 2 is happening. The news broke at the end of a virtual press conference with showrunner Alison Schapker and stars Emily Watson and Olivia Williams on Thursday.
“We are so thrilled and grateful,” Schapker gushed, “that we get to keep telling the stories that we care so deeply about and and get to continue building out our corner of the Dune universe.”
Okay, so what might Dune: Prophecy Season 2 look like? What new locations will the HBO series explore? And which storylines are being very obviously set up?
**Spoilers for Dune: Prophecy Season 1 Episode 6 “The High-Handed Enemy,” now streaming on Max**
The final shot of Dune: Prophecy Season 1 shows us Reverend Mother Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson), Princess Ynez Corrino (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), and Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason) arriving on the desert planet of Arrakis, the primary setting of the Dune novels.
“I am beyond excited to get to go to Arrakis,” Sarah-Sofie Boussnina told Decider in an interview Friday morning. “She doesn’t know what what to expect, you know? When she’s running away, I think her main goal is to just get away from the palace before anyone catches up to them”
“Arrakis is such a big, iconic kind of place and planet for the series, for the Dune universe,” Chris Mason said in a separate interview with Decider. “Season 2 was announced just yesterday for us and we’re really excited to see what Alison’s got cooking for us already.”
Alison Schapker expressed during the press conference her own excitement to finally “get boots on the ground” on Arrakis and teased we’ll learn more about what exactly happened to Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel) on the planet.
“All I would say is I think Valya is there. I think Valya is going to find out a lot more, given that she is back where Desmond emerged as an adversary,” Schapker said. “And it will be interesting to see what she finds out there.”
Between last week’s press conference and Decider’s own conversations with Boussnina and Mason, an intriguing portrait of Dune: Prophecy Season 2 is starting to emerge. Here’s everything we know so far about Dune: Prophecy Season 2 on HBO…
Yep! HBO confirmed on Thursday, December 19 that Dune: Prophecy has been picked up for a second season.
We don’t know exactly when Dune: Prophecy Season 2 will premiere on HBO, but considering that principal photography on Season 1 started in November 2022, and the show debuted in November 2024, we’re probably looking at about a two year wait.
Dune: Prophecy will likely premiere in late 2026 or early 2027.
Dune: Prophecy Season 2 will deal with the fallout of the Season 1 finale. Valya, Ynez, and Keiran are all on Arrakis together, and tensions are already baked into their uneasy alliance.
“In terms of Keiran, he was saved by Ynez and he feels like he owes her a debt,” Chris Mason said. The actor not only confirmed that Keiran loves the princess, but feels the need to keep her safe.
“The safest thing to do is to, for the time being, team up with Valya Harkonnen, which goes against everything he’s ever wanted to do. You know, having a deep hatred for the Harkonnens that’s been passed down through generation. So it’s a tough ask for him, but I think he’s trying to put blinders on and just do best by the princess.”
While Schapker teased that Emperor Javicco’s (Mark Strong) death will leave a “power vacuum” in the Imperium, Boussnina told Decider that Ynez has no idea about the political upheaval on Salusa Secondus.
“So many things have happened that Nez doesn’t know anything about,” Boussnina said. “You know, her father has died.”
While Valya might want Ynez on the throne, it seems that Empress Natalya (Jodhi May) is currently holding all the cards. Not to mention the fact that Constantine Corrino (Josh Heuston) is now in charge of the Imperial fleet — and would have a bone to pick with Natalya since she murdered his mother.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing where Alison takes the story, because, the last time she saw her mom, she put her in jail. How do you come back from that?” Boussnina said. “I’m looking forward to see how her relationship with Constantine evolves. Where do they stand?”
Of course, Valya, Ynez, and Keiran aren’t the only Dune: Prophecy characters on Arrakis now. The disillusioned Sister Mikala (Shalom Brune-Franklin) departed for her home world in Episode 5. When Keiran Atreides discovered Mikala was in the Sisterhood, he told her he never wanted to see her again, but who else will Valya tap as soon as they land?
“I don’t think Keiran is going to be happy to see her, but he’s also starting to realize that he’s always kind of a step behind everything that’s going on,” Mason said before stressing how close Keiran was to killing his presumed ally. .
“She was lucky to get out of there alive, I think. Especially after the adrenaline of going through all the soldiers and coming out of the explosion, it could have gone badly for her,” he said. “But Keiran followed his heart on that one.”
Someone else who followed their heart? Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams), who rushes across the galaxy to help her son Desmond Hart. She manages to save her boy, only for him to turn around and arrest her.
“Sometimes people of that character like to stay in the shadows and it’ll be interesting to see what happens if she is pushed further to the front and whether she can handle it,” Olivia Williams mused during the press conference.
“I love that idea of what you’re saying,” Alison Schapker said. “Sisters exchange, in the sense of Valya does retreat to the shadows, and Tula is suddenly out front in the capital, and what that’s going to mean to them going forward.”
Desmond, Tula, and Valya might now know their relationship to each other, but that still leaves Desmond’s cousin, Keiran Atreides in the dark. (Again, as Mason said, “a step behind.”) When Decider asked Mason what Keiran might make of this revelation, he admitted that he’d have to figure that out with Schapker.
“But my instinct — and, I mean, maybe because I’m a family man —would be to find sympathy for him,” Mason said. “But also the hatred he holds for Desmond Hart and the way he’s done these things in the Imperium, wiped out a lot of Keiran’s closest friends, and that’s going to be a tough sell.”
Finally, Dune: Prophecy Season 2 will also have to address the status of the Sisterhood after a Dorotea-possessed Lila revealed the sins of Valya’s past and destroyed the genetic-coding thinking machine Anirul.
“To what degree is that irrevocable or not” is something Schapker wants to explore. “How is the Sisterhood going to survive?” And what happens if Dorotea loses control of Lila?
With these questions and more, Dune: Prophecy Season 2 is already shaping up to be a stellar continuation of the sci-fi universe.
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