Dune: The Sisterhood: Emily Watson and Shirley Henderson to star in the HBO Max series

Last Updated on October 10, 2022

While fans of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune long for details about Dune: Part Two, there is movement beneath the sand for Dune: The Sisterhood, a spinoff series destined for HBO Max. Emily Watson (Punch-Drunk Love, Red Dragon) and Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) will star in the series, based on Frank Herbert’s classic novel.

Watson plays Valya Harkonnen, with Henderson starring as Tula Harkonnen, also known as the Harkonnen Sisters. Together, these women have risen to power in the Sisterhood, a secret organization of women who will ascend to become the Bene Gesserit.

Last July, Diane Ademu-John (The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Originals,  The Vampire Diaries) was hired as the showrunner on Dune: The Sisterhood. Ademu-John is also writing and executive producing the show. The story is “told through the eyes of a mysterious order of women known as the Bene Gesserit. Given extraordinary abilities by their mastery of the body and the mind, the Bene Gesserit expertly weaves through the feudal politics and intrigue of The Imperium, pursuing plans of their own that will ultimately lead them to the mysterious planet Arrakis, known to its inhabitants as Dune.”

Dune: The Sisterhood takes place 10,000 years before the events of Dune and follows the Harkonnen Sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind and establish the fabled sect known as the Bene Gesserit.

Initially, Villeneuve was going to direct the pilot episode. However, he’s busy putting Dune: Part Two together and isn’t able to spare the time. Still, he remains an executive producer on board Dune: The Sisterhood. Dune: The new Dune series is an HBO Max and Legendary Television co-production. The show is also being executive produced by Scott Z. Burns, Mark Friedman, Matthew King, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert, and Jon Spaihts, who has written the Dune films with Villeneuve and was supposed to be the Sisterhood showrunner at one time. Kevin J. Anderson co-produces.