By Pierre Lorenz on March 1, 2023 at 10:16 am

At first glance, Frank Herbert's novel series "Dune" offers everything required to serve as a basis for a major movie and series franchise: A well-liked novel series, two successful feature films to date, as well as an upcoming sequel, not to mention an extensive storyline that can be adapted in a variety of ways. The planned series "Dune: The Sisterhood" should also have caught the wave of success, but apparently there are serious issues that are currently delaying production.

Last Tuesday, Deadline reported that current director Johan Renck, who also worked on the acclaimed "Chernobyl", recently revealed his departure from the project. This is concerning because part of the filming has already been done and thus a large part of the production was carried out under Renck's supervision. Officially, "creative disagreements" are said to have been the reason. Deadline fleshes it out with an insider report that the director's vision did not match that of HBO Max executives. Above all, the look of the series is said to have deviated too much from Denis Villeneuve's feature film.

Furthermore, the "Dune: The Sisterhood" team will have to do without actress Shirley Henderson in the future. The 57-year-old once played the Moaning Myrtle in the "Harry Potter" saga and was supposed to assume one of the leading roles. The main focus of the film is on the mysterious "Sisterhood", which is considered to be the predecessor organization of the later important Bene Gesserit. In the series set 10,000 years before Villeneuve's film adaptation, they are confronted with powerful individuals who want to take over the fate of the entire universe. Thus, a recasting of Henderson's role would have to occur in order to tell the existing story. It is also believed that extensive reshoots will have to take place to properly produce the series. It is even possible that the series will have to start from scratch so as to create a clear distinction between the old director and the new one.

Whether the almost simultaneous departure of the director and the leading actress might even signify the end of the series is not yet known. There is still no official statement from Warner Bros. on the current rumors. Once there is new information, we will let you guys know.