Dune: Guess ENDS its first season with an epic, 80-minute episode which doesn’t exactly tie up any of its storylines, including the central mystery about who or what is using the forbidden technology to create bio-weapons on Arrakis. So it’s good that the HBO series, a prequel set 10,000 years before Denis Villeneuve’s films, will return to the future.

In a press conference set to the season one finale, “The High-Handed Enemy,” Dune: GuessShowrunner and executive producer Alison Schapker, along with stars Emily Watson (Valya Harkonnen) and Olivia Williams (Tula Harkonnen), mostly talked about one season—but they teased a bit about the future.

Talking about how the series runs itself in six episodes, considering the scope and number of characters, Schapker said that the team stuck to one guiding rule: “to give each episode its own identity. ”

But at the same time, he added, it’s important to “feel that things have changed and that the characters have gone through something that moves the story forward. And it’s very important to always understand Valya’s line and Desmond’s story and Tula’s story. I’d say they’re our main characters. But it’s an attempt to introduce everyone—and it’s a dense world. So it’s a small one that’s a balancing act I was very happy with how the six episodes built up and ended at the end.

As for where he wants to leave things at the end of the first season, Schapker said, “I want to feel like the ground has shifted under their feet at the end of the season, but at the same time we have revelations that make us understand these characters and their dynamics differently, and that there’s a kind of re-contextualizing of the story. So that by the time you’ve seen the whole story, you’ll understand, ‘Oh , there are many more that happened than I first realized’, which I think is in line with the way Sisterhood works—the sense that there are plans within plans, that there’s more to the story than you see at first glance in the first season, I think you have a real sense of the history of the (Harkonnen) sisters, the history of the Sisterhood, and then a real revelation, a truth that comes out. And that’s important to me, that foundation dynamic change. “

Asked about their characters’ state of mind at the end of the first season, Watson and Williams reflected.

“I think everything (has changed between them),” Watson said. “But I think Valya still holds onto (her idea that) ‘I am the chosen one. I have a destiny.’ (Still) his guide through it. But I really want to know what happens next.”

Williams added, “I think the big thing for Tula was when (she said) ‘Please don’t kill my son. Trust me, I got it.’ And the fact that (Valya) trusted me and (left her with Desmond), little did I know that shortly after my son captured me – (this) moment between brothers where finally Tula is trusted with something, if all these years she knows that she is highly capable and is treated as a little sister. Sometimes people of that nature like to stay with those shadow, and it will be interesting to see if what will happen if he is pushed forward and if he can do it.

Schapker built that. “I like that idea of ​​what you said: in some ways the sisters exchange (places) in the sense of Valya retreating into the shadows, and Tula suddenly appears in front of the capital, and what does that mean to them. forward,” he said. “But I also think like any secret that comes out, the longer you keep it, the pain around it has to be metabolized … it makes you think. again your relationship goes back years like, how did I forget something?”

Watson added, “I think it’s also a shameful moment because everything (my character) has done is based on my leadership, my sense of truth. But somehow, Valya is not ashamed. It’s like to ‘I don’t do emotions and I’m fearless, so I’ll continue.’

Asked perhaps the biggest question left after season one—who is behind Desmond’s transformation?—Schapker remained vague on any potential season two spoilers. “(If) you look at the first season, there are hints of Desmond’s identity and his power and where it all comes from,” he said. “As far as a shadowy figures (seen controlling his fate in his visions), I think that remains to be seen in the future. However, we tried to diffuse it—I don’t know if those noticed man, but the cloth he was carrying the first time we saw him, when Desmond Hart appeared and saluted and walked to the palace, he got this black cloth. That was his kind of sign of his mother, and (it reappears) throughout the series. He uses it in private moments as a (way to continue) his drive and his connection. He finally meets her and holds her dress, and realized that a piece of her baby blanket that she wrapped around her (is the ( Sisterhood cloth that she was holding. And now she is finally with her mother. , we try to do things like in that to build and see where the story is going.

Ok, but what about the second biggest question: what will happen now that Valya Harkonnen, Keiran Atreides, and Princess Ynez are on Arrakis? Here is Schapker with, as expected, some hints but not many details.

“After a while Arrakis kind of forced it from afar—whether that was the economy of the spice trade, or the psychological aspect of the visions and dreams that sort of visualized the path of Arrakis and Desmond that permeates everyone’s consciousness-(this is our moment) to actually go and put boots on the ground in this is so over-determined and kind of almost mythical. Dune space that we know so well but we have kept it aloof the whole time. I think it is very important that Valya returned there, and he returned to the point of origin in Desmond, where he came out with a story and a myth: ‘I came from Arrakis and I was swallowed by a worm and I survived after my whole regiment was killed.’ What I will say is that I think Valya has a lot to learn about where she comes out with Desmond as an enemy, and it will be interesting to see what she learns there.

Indeed it will happen! You can take a look Dune: Guess season one on HBO and Max; season two is coming but there is no release date yet.

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