‘Dune: Prophecy’ Showrunner Talks Risky Moves That Redefine the Franchise (2025)

When it comes to television, what exactly does it mean to do it all? With over 20 years of experience in writing and producing for television, Alison Schapker perfectly exemplifies this phrase. Schapker has a great deal of experience in the science fiction genre, which she brings to the upcoming Dune prequel series, Dune Prophecy, as its showrunner. She has written and produced for some of the most iconic science fiction shows, including Fringe, Almost Human, Westworld, and Altered Carbon (for which Schapker also served as showrunner). Now as the executive producer of Dune: Prophecy, Schapker continues to take the genre by storm. She has also worked on television series outside of this genre, including Alias, Brothers & Sisters, Lost, The Flash, Scandal, and Charmed.

Dune Prophecy is based on Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s 2012 novel, Sisterhood of Dune. Both Dune: Prophecy and Sisterhood of Dune take place in Frank Herbert’s universe from the Dune books and films. Dune: Prophecy is set 10,000 years before Paul Atreides’ time. The show primarily focuses on the lives of two sisters, Valya and Tula Harkonnen, and specifically their involvement in the establishment of a powerful sisterhood that eventually takes on the name of the Bene Gesserit. During the 1-on-1 interview with Collider’s own Perri Nemiroff, Schapker speaks about the experience of adapting Sisterhood of Dune into Dune: Prophecy, the value of creating relatable and understandable characters in speculative television shows, the process of choosing how to tell Dune: Prophecy’s story and which characters to include and focus on, as well as the choice of the title for the show.

Adapting ‘Dune: Prophecy’ for the Small Screen Was a Unique Challenge

Schapker highlights the depth and world-building in Dune’s characters, which require attention, even for the smallest of roles.

PERRI NEMIROFF: One of my absolute favorite things about adapting source material is you want to do it justice, but it also gives you an opportunity to evolve it and bring your own voice to it. When this opportunity came your way, what was something about your storytelling skill set that made you think to yourself, “I have something to add to the Dune franchise via my own unique voice?”

ALISON SCHAPKER: Oh, that's so interesting. Well, in a basic sense, to be a genre writer, you live to interface with a property like Dune. It's so endlessly rich and vivid and layered and complex, and the characters are amazing and the world-building is amazing. I could go on and on. I hope that all the work I've done has prepared me to sink my teeth into Dune in a way that is enjoyable for the audience [and] that all the work I've done trying to put relatable human beings in fantastical worlds pays off in this moment because you couldn't have a better template to be working in.

Relatable human beings and a fantastical world. I mean, isn't that what it's all about? To make you feel like you're in there right along with them?

SCHAPKER: Yeah! You can go on to the strangest of places or even the most complex of places, but if you have characters you care about and you really understand what they're doing or thinking, or are intrigued, at least, you can be pulled along in a way that I think is obviously the power of storytelling.

Speaking of those characters, you have many key characters and I was wondering what it was like for you in the development phases to figure out the right assortment, like how many houses you wanted to represent, how many members of the Sisterhood we needed. Was there any trial and error in terms of picking the right characters to focus on?

SCHAPKER: Absolutely, the story went through iterations. Like every show goes through, there's a time when you have more ideas than you could possibly service, and you have to make choices. So, yes, certain things would be like, “Well, maybe not this season,” or, “Maybe we hold that,” or, “Maybe we don't need three of these characters. We just need two.” There are ways that you're pruning.

But I will say the core [was] the idea that we were gonna serve as an Imperial family, that we were going to see the Great Houses, and the sense of politics, that the Sisterhood had to have its own world and be its own organization, that we were gonna follow both the leaders of the Sisterhood when they were young students, but also see the young students who they're training, who, as the series, if we are so lucky to continue, how to grow those characters over time. Everybody is there for a reason. Everybody represents an arm of the Sisterhood. There's the more overt, public-facing, “We have jobs. We advise leaders,” and then there's the more covert, “We're also spies.” And so, different characters represent different aspects of our Sisterhood.

When you go into the writing phase, which particular character were you most excited to flesh out, but then also can you tell me which character wound up being more creatively fulfilling to craft a season-long arc for than you ever could have imagined at the start?

SCHAPKER: [Laughs] Caveat: I love all my characters, and every one of them requires that. Because I do think with Dune, even if you're not telling a massive story, I feel like with every character, you could. I wanted them to be alive enough, specific enough that even if we were only going to peel back one little layer, and I mean that from the smallest roles, they are there doing world-building work that's very interesting.

I love the Harkonnen sisters. I think they're the beating heart of the show, but I also would say the character that leapt to life in a fun way was Harrow Harkonnen, who doesn't even come in in a big way until Episode 4, really. But by the end, I just find myself enjoying him so much. That's a small surprise.

What It Takes to Craft the Characters of ‘Dune: Prophecy’

“Dune is very much a story where the past is alive in the present, and it’s shaping the future, and all those things are speaking to each other.”

I like that example there. Now, taking a step forward in the process to casting, of all the key characters in the show, which was the easiest to cast, where it was like the right person just magically appeared, but then on the other hand, which character took the most leg work to find the perfect fit for?

SCHAPKER: You know, I'm very intuitive when it comes to casting, and so I do have an, “I know when I know,” kind of thing, and I wait for that feeling. Many characters locked in in a very obvious way. So, Chloe Lea, who plays Sister Lila, it was just immediately apparent to me that that was who we should be going for. I think she's a phenomenal talent. I hope she breaks in a huge way, I think she's stunning. I feel that way about all our acolytes, actually. I think they're all amazing. And Jessica Barden as young Emily [Watson].

She’s always a favorite for me!

SCHAPKER: I adore her and also felt that it was just undeniable. Also, she had such a tall order, and same with Emma Canning, who plays young Tula, and those young acolytes, Yerin Ha and Charithra Chandran. I always felt like if we had to tell a story just in that group, that would be a great show. But also we have this other group in the present, so it’s a blessing of riches.

Bringing that up, it did cross my mind, what was it like figuring out the right story structure for the season in terms of — I'm not saying this properly but just to get it across quickly and clearly — jumping from the past to the present in the show versus, let’s say, using the House of the Dragon model that we just saw and starting with just the younger ensemble and then eventually doing a time jump to the older one?

SCHAPKER: Oh, yeah, which was very interesting, and I hadn't seen. I think for me, Dune is very much a story where the past is alive in the present, and it's shaping the future, and all those things are speaking to each other. So, I really do want to continue to sort of toggle between points where decisions were put in play, and who were people then versus now they're playing out and who are people now, and what time does to people and to plans over time. I think that's all really interesting texture to the show.

It's especially effective in Episode 3.

SCHAPKER: Oh, I know!

What It Means to Create the Visual Language of ‘Dune: Prophecy’ While Exploring New Worlds

Schapker discusses the balance of Dune: Prophecy’s visual aesthetic with the films and what collaboration looked like.

I was very impressed by how well that one was done. I'm gonna inch a little further into the process now to production, and specifically figuring out the right visual language for the show. What is something that Denis [Villeneuve] and Greig Fraser did in the films that you knew you needed to uphold to make sure it all feels cohesive, but then also can you pinpoint some things about your vision that you wanted to do to make sure we could feel that this is a completely different period of time?

SCHAPKER: The artistry of the films of Denis Villeneuve and Greig Fraser is such an outstanding and inspiring and high bar to set. We appreciate that as artists. We too wanted to create a world that felt immersive, that felt specific, that had spectacle because I do think this also speaks to Dune. The ecology of Dune and the nature of Dune , it really does transport you, and it should. We wanted our show to transport you as much as the films do. Even though we're a different animal, we had incredible artists who were our directors and our visual effects team and our production designer, and all were huge Dune fans. That's the other thing I've heard Denis speak of that I think we had, too, which was just a bunch of people who loved what they were doing and felt like they were working on a special project.

I would say what's been fun is that we don't set our story on Arrakis. So, how do we maintain that bar but take you to totally different planets where we're making brand new aesthetic decisions about, like, what is Salusa Secundus? And what does Lankiveil look like? Or other planets we go to? Just that idea that that's a whole new set of aesthetic choices. I think that's the thing about Dune that makes it tricky, but also makes it exciting is you have just so many choices to make.

The ambition with all the locations you have here is something else. Of all of the key locations and the enormous set builds that you had, which did you think was going to be the most difficult to pull off, and ultimately was it, or did a different location catch you by surprise?

SCHAPKER: That's interesting. This is probably not a good answer based on that question, but honestly, I had people I was working with, and some who I had worked with before on Westworld, who I just had such high confidence that we were going to be able to find what we needed. It was always a question of when. So, it was like a, “When is the location gonna reveal itself to us,” kind of a thing. Everybody just had that ambition, had that sense of, like, they were going to reach the degree of difficulty, it didn't scare them, per se. It was like we were going to realize something great, and we really set out to do that every day.

Then there were things like we would be faced with the Hungarian winter or something, which is very real and very intense, but we happened to be shooting our Lankiveil scenes, which was our ice planet. That's the kind of suffering for your art, on the one hand, but that also is so unbelievable as you're out there in the cold with your hand warmers and your feet warmers, but you're looking at what's on the monitor and the sky is laden in the heaviest gray, and the light is stunning, and it starts to snow for real, and you're filming a scene. That's moving magic. So, we got lucky. I felt like it's like you make your own luck — you just go for it and go for it and go for it. Then sometimes, when the universe meets you, you just can't believe the footage you're getting, moments like that.

This might seem like a teeny, tiny detail, but I get really hung up on show titles, and I know at a point you switched your title from Dune: The Sisterhood to Dune: Prophecy . Now that we're digging into the story, can you explain why that shift felt like it better reflected the show that you made?

SCHAPKER: Look, the Sisterhood is very much our point of origin, and I think that there was a time when that title was very grounding and orienting to the show. We are still explaining it as, “This is the story of the origin of the Bene Gesserit,” but I do feel like it is also set in a fully-realized world where it involves the Great Houses and the Imperium and the emperor. Eventually, over time, there are the other schools — there are the Mentats, there's the Spacing Guild. There's so much to the world that I don't think we wanted to artificially narrow it in the title, ultimately. And in some ways, Dune: Prophecy is both very representative of the Sisterhood because they're gonna obviously put in play a prophecy that's gonna bring about Paul Atreides, and it's very much who they are, but I think also it allows anyone in the Imperium to relate to it — what we believe in, what we don't, what stories we're gonna tell, who we're gonna elevate with those stories. I think Dune: Prophecy is thematically also very true to the show.

That totally makes sense. I wanted to make sure to end with this particular question, and I'll preface it by saying you work with a wonderful team here, and everybody's work is very, very important, but I find that nobody in this business tells themselves good job, and you are showrunning an incredibly ambitious production here with lore that a lot of people out there care deeply about. Can you tell me something you accomplished making Dune: Prophecy that you know you'll always be able to look back on and say, “You know what? I'm really proud of what I did there?”

SCHAPKER: Oh, that's a nice question! I would say, honestly, it's a little bit what you said. The answer’s in your question, which is, it is the people. It is inspiring and creating an environment where people can do their best work, where they feel invested in the work that they're doing and seen, and that their extra efforts they're going to, or when you're going to go back and maybe try it again for the fourth time or the fifth time, or this desire to dig as deep and not stop until we have to, making it good, that ethos is something I really try and embody from the top. I also love that energy coming back at me, and I'm proud of the team that I've worked with and the collaboration because you can't mount this kind of a production without an army of people doing their best work.

Dune: Prophecy Episode 1 will be released on Max on November 17.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Dune: Prophecy

Sci-Fi

Adventure

Fantasy

Drama

TV series set in the 'Dune' universe which centers on the lives of the Bene Gesserit.

Cast

Emily Watson , Olivia Williams , Jodhi May , Travis Fimmel , Mark Strong , Jade Anouka , Chris Mason , Sarah-Sofie Boussnina , Shalom Brune-Franklin , Faoileann Cunningham , Aoife Hinds , Chloe Lea , Josh Heuston , Edward Davis , Tabu , Yerin Ha

Creator(s)

Diane Ademu-John , Alison Schapker

Writers

Diane Ademu-John , Kevin J. Anderson , Brian Herbert , Frank Herbert

Streaming Service(s)

MAX

Directors

Anna Foerster

Showrunner

Alison Schapker

Watch on Max