We already knew that director Denis Villeneuve was bringing a new adaptation of Dune to the big screen next year, and now we’ve received news that he’ll be helming a small screen adaptation, too.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Villeneuve is set to direct the pilot episode of Dune: The Sisterhood, a new TV series based on Frank Herbert’s classic novel. While there are a number of follow-up novels to the original Dune, this new series will apparently be based on the original — at least to start — just like the upcoming film. So what’s the difference between the two projects? Well, the TV series will tell the story through female characters’ eyes, putting a new spin on the proceedings. Specifically, the show will focus on the Bene Gesserit, a politically-influential religious sect of superpowered women first introduced in the original 1965 novel. Their motivations and machinations have always remained somewhat of a mystery, and the new series will give fans a chance to learn more about them.
“The Bene Gesserit have always been fascinating to me,” Villeneuve told THR. “Focusing a series around that powerful order of women seemed not only relevant and inspiring but a dynamic setting for the television series.”
The new series will debut on WarnerMedia’s upcoming (and untitled) streaming service and is part of the company’s plan to create a sprawling, interconnected universe of Dune media. There are already plans for a sequel to the Dune film, and Dune video games, comic books, and “digital concept packages” — whatever those are — are also in the works, according to THR.
The Dune film, with its bonkers cast including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, and others, is set to hit theaters on Nov. 20, 2020. Dune: The Sisterhood has no scheduled release date as of yet, but WarnerMedia’s streaming service is expected to launch in Beta mode late this year.
