Is ‘Dune: Prophecy’ doin’ enough?

Welcome to the post-Thanksgiving edition of Popculturology. Are you still eating leftovers? (Might I suggest making a Thanksgiving taco?) Are you going to see Moana 2 this weekend? (Your kids will love it, but it falls short of the original Moana.)

It's hard to be Dune: Prophecy in a Dune: Part Two world

If you had told Dune fans a decade ago that not only would the series’ first book have been adapted into two hit films but there was also a prestige-y TV show based on the series on HBO, they probably would’ve thought you were crazy.

Turning Dune into a hit in the 2020s was such an unsure bet, Warner Bros. didn’t even green light a second movie despite director Denis Villeneuve splitting Frank Herbert’s first book into two films. That “Part One” in the film’s title card? That was wishful thinking, not a promise. (Contrast this with how Universal has hidden the fact that they split Wicked into two films despite shooting them together.)

I’m a recent convert to Dune. I wrote about how I fell in love with the franchise before Dune: Part Two hit theaters. I’m still stuck on God Emperor of Dune, and I definitely haven’t read any of the sequel written by Herbert’s son, Bryan Herbert. But Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune — the first three Dune books written by Herbert — fully captured my attention, and I’ve watched Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation a ton. (Including see Dune: Part Two three times in theaters.)

All of this is to say that I was excited about Dune: Prophecy, HBO’s attempt to turn Dune into a multi-platform cinematic universe. When the prequel series debuted, though, we were out of town.

And then I forgot about it.