News culture HBO makes Dune fans' dream come true: the Prophecy series brings to life this fantasy war for nearly 60 years
Published on 11/19/2024 at 07:25
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I am the fruit of a popular culture which took off in the 90s and which has established itself over the decades as the dominant culture. Video games, cinema, manga, anime, comics, comics, literature, series… I am eager to learn and explore the imaginations available to me, regardless of the media.
The first episode of Dune: Prophecy was broadcast on Max (formerly HBO Max) on November 18, 2024, and it was the perfect opportunity to discover in images a war fantasized for nearly 60 years by fans of this science fiction universe . It's time to step to the front lines in hopes of saving humanity.
The machine war
Anyone who has read the novels written by Frank Herbert or watched one of the film adaptations – that of David Lynch or those of Denis Villeneuve – knows that thinking machines are completely forbidden within the Imperium. Artificial intelligences were banned more than 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides and replaced by “mentats”or “human computers” belonging to the order founded by Gilbertus Albans. And the Dune: Prophecy series features one of the most devastating and fantasy wars in Dune history.
The year is 201 before the Guild. 10,148 years before the events recounted in the novel Dune, humanity then enslaved by thinking machines revolts and launches into a total war to free itself from the yoke of the oppressor. Told in “The War of the Machines”, this conflict followed by the Butlerian Jihad led to the outlawing and destruction of AI and related technologies following the victory of Men over conscious machines. And beware of those who transgress the law. Unfortunately, Dune: Prophecy only takes a few precious seconds to illustrate this centuries-old war.
Butlerian Jihad (see also Great Revolt): crusade launched against computers, thinking machines and conscious robots in 201 before the Guild and which ended in 108. Its main commandment appears in the CO Bible: “You shall not make a machine to the mind of the like man”2. – (Frank Herbert)
An expanding cinematic universe
Warner Bros. Pictures intends to take advantage of the general public's renewed interest in the universe put on paper in 1965 by Frank Herbert. Following the first Dune film directed in 2021 by Denis Villeneuve, the North American firm has started work on a prequel series focused on the origins of the Bene Gesserit called Dune : Prophecyand that's not all. The Canadian-born director also confirmed that the sequel to Dune, part two, had been validated by Warner. This new feature film will be a direct follow-up to the one released in early 2024 and will adapt the novel The Messiah of Dunestill with Timothée Chalamet to play Paul Atréides.
