Emily Watson, Olivia Williams and Mark Strong star in a visually grand six-part series, which takes place before the events of Denis Villeneuve’s blockbusters and focuses on a scheming drama surrounding the Bene Gesserit.

Dune: Prophecy is gearing up for its premiere on HBO, so if you want to know when to log onto Max to stream it, we’ve got you covered.

A long-gestating prequel, about the women who seek to guide a galaxy, is splashy, somber and insufficiently spicy.

The new series traverses the formative years of the Bene Gesserit sect, the simmering tensions between the great houses of Herbert’s world and the wake of the war with the “thinking machines”. But with an exposition-heavy first episode,