Dune: Prophecy Mystery: Why Does Tech Evolve So Little in 10,148 Years That Follow? — We Asked a Producer
What a difference a day (or 3.7 million of ’em) doesn’t make.
Early on in the premiere of HBO’s Dune: Prophecy prequel series — which is set 10,148 years prior to the Timothée Chalamet/Rebecca Ferguson Dune movies — Princess Ynez Corrino (played by Knightfall‘s Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) and swordsman Keiran “Ancestor of Paul” Atreides (Riverdale‘s Chris Mason) train with swords, using personal body shields (aka Holtzman shields) to protect themselves from accidental injury.
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These humming, holographic-looking Holtzman shields appear very similar to the ones used by Paul Atreides (Chalamet), Warmaster Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) and Swordmaster Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) in the first of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films.
But why is that — like, how can that possibly be — when more than 10,000 years have passed between the TV series and movies?
I mean, here in the ordinary, real world, we went from wired rotary telephones to mobiles that fit in your pocket in not 60 years!
Yes, “thinking machines” are famously forbidden in the Dune universe, but the tech that is allowed after the Machine War, as seen in Dune: Prophecy, doesn’t seem to evolve much over the 10,000 years that follow.
We brought our burning question to Jordan Goldberg, an executive producer on the HBO series.
Goldberg noted that Holtzman tech is established in Dune lore “before our show evens starts,” and that “what we’re showing in our world is how it’s used not just in body shields.
“Our cars that fly, that’s all Holtzman tech. There’s a character you’ll meet in Episode 3, and he’s in a Holtzman wheelchair, that’s levitation,” Goldberg said. “We’re showing the utility of that tech.”
Now back to our actual question….
“I can’t give you an answer why the tech doesn’t evolve over 10,000 years,” Goldberg hedged — save for the possibility that, as long ago as when Dune: Prophecy is set, it seemed to be getting the job done perfectly fine. And thus maybe didn’t demand any upgrade.
Ever.
Over 10,000 years.
Quipped Goldberg, “It still seems pretty useful protecting you in a sword fight!”
Want scoop on Dune: Prophecy, or for any other TV show ? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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