Hollywood’s hottest post-pandemic property is also a sprawling universe with in-depth lore and exhaustive world-building. It’s not shocking that the Dune franchise is already spawning spin-off shows, video game series, a vast amount of supportive literature and a number of official collector’s merchandise. Dune author Frank Herbert’s son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have collaborated on their own series of Dune novels in the past, and are planning yet another trilogy, this time with a special focus on the House of Atreides.
“Dune, like our universe, is expanding, but we’re very conscious that we don’t want to expand it too far. We don’t want to come up with material that the hard-core Dune fans will not appreciate, because Dune above all is very high-quality work, and we struggle to maintain that quality,” Herbert recently told an entertainment portal.
Denis Villeneuve’s reboot is already getting a sequel in 2023, but till the sequel drops Dune fans will have access to material aplenty. Here are a few outings from the Dune-sphere that should keep you occupied.
Streaming: Dune The Sisterhood
Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam with Paul Atriedes in a scene from ‘Dune’
Warner BrosThe daunting, quasi-magical cult of the Bene Gesserit is getting its own TV show set to be helmed by Diane Ademu-John who has written and produced episodes for The Haunting of Bly Manor, Empire, The Originals. The direct-to-TV show will be a prequel and will be streamed at HBO Max. The secretive religious order of the sisterhood is of significant prominence in Dune lore because Bene Gesserit serve as ‘truth sayers to the Empire and also herald the coming of the Kwisatz Haderach or the Muad’Dib, also known as the ‘Chosen One.’
It’s possible that the prequel series will shed some light on the foundational years of the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (played in the 2021 reboot by Charlotte Rampling) or even focus on Lady Jessica’s younger years as an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit. The show is scheduled to release in 2022 or 2023. Meanwhile, you can catch up on the history of the cult through Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s novel The Sisterhood of Dune.
Gaming: Funcom’s series of multi-player survival games
Funcom is making a series of Dune games, including an open-world multiplayer survival game
FuncomScience fiction and grand strategy elements always work well together and there have been quite a few successful Dune video games in the ’90s and the aughts. Funcom announced in 2019 that it was making a series of Dune games, including an open-world multiplayer survival game (interestingly, Funcom also developed another famous desert strategy game, Conan Exiles). Funcom has signed a six-year deal with Legendary Entertainment (that co-financed Dune) in 2019, with an aim to release three games set in the Dune universe.
Although the game does not have a release date yet, Funcom CEO Rai Casais shared some details about the ambitious open-world games. “The biggest, most exciting and most ambitious of our projects is without a doubt the DUNE open-world survival game we’re working on, after having secured the exclusive rights for PC and Console games with this fantastic IP. It will be a more ambitious and robust version of Conan Exiles set in the DUNE universe, designed to be a game as a service from the outset,” Casais revealed recently.
Collector’s sourcebook/ merch: Modiphius Dune Collectors Edition Harkonnen Core Rulebook
The collector’s edition features stylised covers featuring sigils of the houses of Atreides, Harkonnen, Royal House Corrino, and Arrakis itself
Modiphius.comUK-based Modiphius Entertainment has developed games for cult properties such as Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Coinciding with Dune’s release the company has announced pre-orders for new collector’s editions of its Dune TTRPG, Dune - Adventures in the Imperium that will be out by December. The core rulebook features an extensive look at the Imperium and its society, society and faith, along with guidelines for different campaigns and for creating a feudal ‘House’ of your own and the game uses a 2d20 system that has been designed for this particular franchise.
The collector’s edition features stylised covers featuring sigils of the houses of Atreides, Harkonnen, Royal House Corrino, and Arrakis itself. Those who pre-order the collector’s editions will receive full PDF versions of the core rulebook and they can also go for a player’s bundle, a game master’s bundle, Dune-themed dice sets and a comprehensive sourcebook on the history of the Imperium.
Prequel books: The Duke Of Caladan
‘Dune: The Duke of Caladan’ unravels a year before the events of ‘Dune’
MacMillanDune author Frank Herbert’s son Brian Herbert along with Kevin J. Anderson has announced a new trilogy of books that will end with the news of House Atreides’ relocation to Arrakis, setting the stage for events of the main story. The trilogy starts with Dune: The Duke of Caladan; the novel unravels a year before the events of Dune and explores the lives of Paul Atreides, his mother Lady Jessica, and Duke Atreides on the ocean planet of Caladan.
The prequel trilogy will help ease new readers into the folklore of Dune, specifically culture, religion and society inhabited by the Atreides. “We might be getting a lot of brand-new readers, so we didn’t want to do something that was in a very obscure timeframe. We wanted something that could be easily accessible and familiar to anybody who’d just read the first Dune novel,” Anderson said during the San Diego Comic-Con.
Comic: Dune: House Atreides
The comic is set more than three decades before the events of 'Dune'
Boom! StudiosLos Angeles comic book company Boom! Studios is set to release a 12-issue comic adaptation based on the first book of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s Dune trilogy that came out in the ’90s. Illustrator Dev Pramanik and colourist Alex Guimarães will design the graphics for the comic that is set more than three decades before the events of Dune.
The comics will explore the early days of Baron Harkonnen’s rule, and will also chart Pardot Kynes’ arrival on Arrakis to search for the coveted spice.
