Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for the Dune: Prophecy Season 1 finale.
While Dune: Prophecy has mostly revolved around political manipulation and scheming — particularly from the leaders of what will later come to be known as the Bene Gesserit — the finale leads to some decisive decision-making, some of which ends in deadly consequences for more than one character. Although Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) has her own plan for dealing with the threat of the mysterious Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), what she doesn’t initially know is that he’s also the long-lost son of her sister, Tula (Olivia Williams), who previously led Valya to believe he had died during childbirth. Moving against Desmond, however, is easier said than done, and not just because he’s technically family; he’s made himself indispensable to the wife of Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong), Natalya (Jodhi May), and this new alliance has their own unique bone to pick with the Sisterhood.
Ahead of the Dune: Prophecy finale (and before the announcement that the show had already been renewed for a second season), Collider had the opportunity to speak with May about Natalya’s trajectory over these last episodes and how it all comes to a head in deadly fashion by tonight’s episode, particularly where Sister Francesca (Tabu), Corrino’s mistress, is concerned. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, May delves into what pushes Natalya to her breaking point with her husband, what her hatred of the Sisterhood is really rooted in, and why she’s drawn to Desmond Hart. She also discusses her interpretation of that kiss scene, where Natalya is poised to go in a potential Season 2, and more.
COLLIDER: Thinking back on your character Calanthe in The Witcher and then, now, Natalya in Dune: Prophecy, did you ever consider the similarities between these two women — aside from the incredible costumes that you get to wear as part of both shows?
JODHI MAY: Yeah, I suppose there is a similarity. I do love Queen Calanthe because she’s just this warrior queen with this brilliantly deadpan sense of humor. There is a similarity in that there’s fearlessness about both these characters, and they’re very unconventional women, and they’re not afraid to take on the men who normally seem to dominate in these genre-type dramas. What’s really original and refreshing, both about something like The Witcher and Dune: Prophecy, is that it’s a fresher take on a well-known classic, but also on the gender stereotypes that sometimes we’re used to encountering, and that it pushes up against our expectations and plays with that in a really interesting way.
Jodhi May Explains Why Natalya and Javicco’s Marriage Is So Strained in ‘Dune: Prophecy’
Natalya’s marriage to Javicco is tense from the start, even before the show reveals that it was a political match. In the finale, we see the flashback of how this was really all orchestrated by the Sisterhood from the beginning. How is their arrangement really stretched to its breaking point in these last couple of episodes?
MAY: There is that tension from the beginning in their marriage, and although it is a marriage that was arranged, obviously there was feeling there at one point, which is implied from that scene between them, and there was a sense of a shared partnership and a shared sense of leadership.
The way that it plays out in the latter episodes is that Natalya’s breaking point is this slavish adherence to the Sisterhood that she sees around her. She’s pushed beyond the breaking point, and she really takes matters into her own hands, and that’s because she doesn’t want to see her daughter caught in the same trap that she’s been caught in. I guess it’s just [Javicco’s] inaction, isn’t it? Natalya is the woman of action, whereas Emperor Corrino is the man of indecisiveness, and she realizes that unless she acts with the arrival of his mistress, she’s always going to be in this checkmate position with the Sisterhood thing. It just upends the whole hierarchy of power, obviously, and it’s a real coup, and that’s going to present some really interesting possibilities further down the line.
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This is one of those rare moments when holding back in an interview may speak louder than words …
Francesca showed up and made waves in last week’s episode, and there’s clearly no love lost between these two women. As we learn later, Francesca was sent to Corrino ahead of time before the marriage, so she was there before Natalya was even really part of his life. Is that relationship, and that character, part of the reason why Natalya doesn’t care for the Sisterhood? Do you think it stems from a Sister being in there, manipulating her husband? Or does it run deeper?
MAY: The introduction of Francesca is such a deep personalized betrayal, and it shows the extent to which the Sisterhood are so insidiously interwoven into Natalya’s life and the sense in which she then feels that she really has no agency, because it’s something which is just ingrained in her marriage. Once she sees the extent to which she is being completely shut out, not only herself but her daughter and her daughter’s future, and the future of the Imperium is going down this male line of inheritance, that is something she can’t tolerate. Obviously, it’s a return of a past grudge that she wants to settle, and a fire is rekindled in her about settling this score once and for all in a pretty gruesome way.
Jodhi May Reveals Why Natalya and Desmond Are Drawn To Each Other in ‘Dune: Prophecy’
In your mind, what draws Natalya to Desmond Hart, and what do you think keeps her there after that initial pull?
MAY: They’re both outsiders. I suppose there’s something interesting about both of those characters because they’ve faced adversity, if you like. In that scene between them, it’s very much two characters showing each other their wounds, and there’s a mutual vulnerability there. There’s this sense in which, obviously, he is out to seek vengeance against the Sisterhood — which Natalya is as well — but for very different reasons, because he’s been abandoned by his mother. So there’s a way in which they are both wounded people, and they’re both drawn to each other by this mutual sense of having been deeply wounded by the Sisterhood in a very emotional way that has completely changed the course of their lives. I think it’s his vulnerability that she’s drawn to. You never know with Natalya how that’s going to play out.
I did want to ask about your interpretation of the kiss, too, and what you felt the emotions were behind that moment for your character.
MAY: The kiss is complex, isn’t it? In a sense, it’s about extreme circumstances. Sometimes people are drawn to each other in extreme circumstances, and there is a recognition of self within him. To some extent in that scene, they’re the mirror image of each other. So I think she really identifies with him. I would say it’s somewhere between sympathy and maybe strategy. We’ll have to wait and see, but in the moment, it’s definitely a sense of deep identification. And for a powerful woman like Natalya, there’s something intriguing about a character who’s an outsider, who’s also got a certain vulnerability about them.
It does seem to embolden Natalya in the following scene with Javicco. Does she feel like she can seize control in that moment because she has Desmond in her corner?
MAY: Absolutely. Desmond has been the wild card in the scenario so far, and Natalya has been the only one who’s unafraid to engage with fire and try and turn it to her purposes. She has absolutely strategized to a certain degree. In a way, she’s a bit of a lone wolf, but she’s also recruiting an ally. Obviously, everybody’s loyalty is strained in this situation, and to what extent anyone can trust any of these characters is always up for grabs. But yeah, she is emboldened by thinking, “Okay, I’ve got an ally in Desmond, I think we can fight this on a united front.” And he’s a catalyst that brings everything to a head in terms of when it is right for her to make that move.
What’s Next for Natalya After That Shocking ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Finale?
Natalya killing Francesca seems like a moment that even she didn’t expect to be in a position to make happen. She’s just there at the right time to take both of those pieces off the board. Where does she go at this point, now that both Javicco and Francesca have been removed from the equation?
MAY: That’s a really interesting question, isn’t it? Because there is an empty seat. So it throws up all sorts of interesting possibilities. She couldn’t have foreseen what she was going to encounter in that room when she entered and saw Javicco on the floor dying, essentially. It’s an act that’s not necessarily premeditated, but the opportunity was there and she took it. It’s more about, again, attacking the Sisterhood rather than any individual. Your guess is as good as mine as to where that leads, but I can’t see Natalya being somebody who would be happy to be… well, it’s a decisive character who’s making a pretty decisive decision, and it feels like a major coup that really gives her the potential to have a decisive role in terms of the Imperium going forward.
All episodes of Dune: Prophecy are available to stream on Max. Season 2 will premiere at a date yet to be announced.
Set in the universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune series, this sci-fi epic follows the political and spiritual struggles on the desert planet of Arrakis. As factions vie for control of the prized spice melange, a prophesied hero emerges, challenging the balance of power and the fate of the galaxy.
- Release Date
-
November 17, 2024
- Cast
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Emily Watson
, Olivia Williams
, Jodhi May
, Travis Fimmel
, Mark Strong
, Jade Anouka
, Chris Mason
, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina
, Shalom Brune-Franklin
, Faoileann Cunningham
, Aoife Hinds
, Chloe Lea
, Josh Heuston
, Edward Davis
, Tabu
, Yerin Ha - Main Genre
-
Sci-Fi
- Seasons
-
1
- Writers
-
Diane Ademu-John
, Kevin J. Anderson
, Brian Herbert
, Frank Herbert - Directors
-
Anna Foerster
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