*We spoke to actor Travis Fimmel and executive producer Jordan Goldberg about the hotly anticipated HBO series “Dune: Prophecy,” which is set in Frank Herbert’s vast Dune universe.
Fimmel stars as Desmond Hart, a mysterious and magnetic soldier whose shadowed past adds a layer of intrigue to the story. The series, set 10,000 years before Paul Atreides’ rise, centers on two Harkonnen sisters facing powerful forces that threaten humanity’s survival while laying the groundwork for the iconic Bene Gesserit order. Goldberg, known for his work on “Westworld,” “Inception,” and “The Dark Knight” films, brings a rich background in complex, immersive storytelling to the project.
We asked Travis about exploring the layers of Desmond’s personality and how his journey reflects and challenges “Dune’s” themes of power and loyalty.
“He’s very angry and he’s had some stuff that’s happened to him in his life that he’s very bitter about,” Fimmel said. “And he’s going to take it out on the people he thinks are responsible for it. He will do anything..even if it tortures himself, he will go through as much pain as he can to inflict pain on other people because he feels he’s justified.”
He continued, “The whole script is… what makes me enjoy it is the complexity of the characters and the constant riddle that’s playing out, the constant chess games,” Fimmel explained. “You don’t know who’s good, who’s bad, who’s going to win, who’s going to lose. I think that’s very engaging for the audience. You have to watch the next episode to find out.”
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Jordan added: “… we thought what was exciting about this story was that we’d be able to kind of tell a lot of the origin tales of the stuff that was iconographic to the story, which is like, the sisterhood, the Corrino Empire, the Harkonnen/Atreides feud, those things are very juicy to get into and was a lot of fun to kind of show their beginning stages.”
During the film’s New York Comic Con panel on Oct. 17, series star Emily Watson said: “What was really delicious to me as an actor about coming into this world was that these women are from a truly, truly, recognizably messed-up family. They’ve had an awful childhood and it’s sort of propelled them away. And nothing, nothing in this world is good and bad; everything is compromised and strange, and yet what Valya Harkonnen sets her sights on is really determining the right path for humankind. That’s her ambition.”
The “Dune: Prophecy” cast also includes Olivia Williams, Jodhi May, Mark Strong, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Josh Heuston, Chloe Lea, Jade Anouka, Faoileann Cunningham, Aoife Hinds, Chris Mason, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Edward Davis, Jihae, Tabu, Jessica Barden, and Emma Canning.
The six-episode season of “Dune: Prophecy” debuts Sunday, November 17 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. New episodes will debut weekly on Sundays.
Watch our full interview with Travis and Jordan below.
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