The Other Dune Sequel You May Have Forgotten: SYFY's 2003 Miniseries, Children of Dune

Matthew Jackson
·7 min read
3
The Other Dune Sequel You May Have Forgotten: SYFY's 2003 Miniseries, Children of Dune
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Right now,emDune/em/afans are closer than ever to a big-screen adaptation extending beyond the reach of a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/frank-herbert" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Frank Herbert/a's original novel.a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/dune-part-ii-new-characters-teased-by-denis-villeneuve" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"emDune: Part Two/em/ais in theaters, setting the stage for future films that would adapt books likea href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/denis-villeneuve-wants-dune-part-two-in-theaters-fast" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"emDune: Messiah/em/aon a blockbuster scale./p pBut longtime followers of the franchise know that any potentialemDune/emsequel movie wouldn't be the first time these sequels got screen adaptations. For that you have to look back 20 years, back to when a data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/best-syfy-sci-fi-original-series-bsg-resident-alient-magicians-stargate-expanse" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/best-syfy-sci-fi-original-series-bsg-resident-alient-magicians-stargate-expanse" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/best-syfy-sci-fi-original-series-bsg-resident-alient-magicians-stargate-expanse" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"strongSYFY/strong/a was known as The Sci-fi Channel, and a little miniseries calledemFrank Herbert's Children of Dune/em./p pstrongFor More on emDune/em:bra data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/watch-extended-preview-from-dune-1984-david-lynch-film-adaptation" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/watch-extended-preview-from-dune-1984-david-lynch-film-adaptation" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/watch-extended-preview-from-dune-1984-david-lynch-film-adaptation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Extended Preview of 1984'semDune/em/a/strongbrba data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/best-betrayals-sci-fi-traitors-peacock" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/best-betrayals-sci-fi-traitors-peacock" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/best-betrayals-sci-fi-traitors-peacock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"The Most Brutal Betrayals in Sci-fi Film and TV/a/bbrba data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/syfy-essential-tv-shows" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/syfy-essential-tv-shows" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/syfy-essential-tv-shows" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"16 Essential SYFY Shows You Need to Watch/a/b/p h2Back in 2000,emFrank Herbert's Dune/em Debuted on The Sci-Fi Channel/h2 pIn 2000, the Sci-fi Channel launched the first small-screen adaptation of Herbert's epic sci-fi saga.emFrank Herbert's Dune/emmarked the second live-action adaptation of the original novel, after a data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/watch-extended-preview-from-dune-1984-david-lynch-film-adaptation" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/watch-extended-preview-from-dune-1984-david-lynch-film-adaptation" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/watch-extended-preview-from-dune-1984-david-lynch-film-adaptation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"David Lynch's divisive feature film/a 16 years earlier, and the first television adaptation of the book. Spearheaded by writer/director John Harrison (emTales from the Darkside/em) with a cast led by William Hurt (Duke Leto Atreides) and Alec Newman (Paul Atreides), the adaptation was spread into a miniseries length of three episodes made up of more than four hours pf material. That meant that more space was given to adapt Herbert's book, explain key elements of the lore, and even take some inventive adaptive steps along the way./p pAnd it worked, or at least it mostly worked. While it's very clearly a made-for-TV affair,emFrank Herbert's Dune/emwas well-received, becoming one of the Sci-fi Channel's most-watched programs ever, and winning two Emmy Awards for its cinematography and visual effects. That meant a sequel was possible, but as longtime Herbert readers know, even byemDune/emstandards, the sequels are where things get... complicated./p h2emFrank Herbert's Children of Dune/emstrongFollowed in 2003/strong/h2 div data-embed-button="media" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.embed" data-entity-embed-display-settings="[]" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="7e4aab72-6ab2-4963-9b7a-f5d068ba972e" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"div class="media__image" style="max-width:862px" div class="media__image-wrapper" div div img loading="lazy" decoding="async" fetchpriority="low" src="https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/scale_862/public/2024/03/tsdchof_to003.jpg" width="862" height="575" alt="Susan Sarandon, adorned richly, looks at an own in Children of Dune (2003)." typeof="foaf:Image" /div /div /div div class="media__metadata" div class="media__metadata-wrapper" span class="media__caption" Susan Sarandon appears in Children of Dune (2003). /span span class="media__credit"Photo: Blixa Film Produktion / Touchstone Television Productions /span /div /div /div /div pThree years afteremFrank Herbert's Dune/em, Harrison returned as screenwriter, working with veteran TV director Greg Yaitanes, to produceemFrank Herbert's Children of Dune/em, another three-part Sci-fi Channel miniseries that, ambitiously, set out to adapt both the second and third books in Herbert's series,emDune: Messiah/emand iChildren of Dune/i./p pThat's a very tall order, because things get really narratively twisted and ambitious in those two books.emMessiah/emfocuses largely on the challenges Paul Atreides faces once he's become Emperor of the known universe, including his continued dealings with the Fremen, plots to unseat him from the throne, and drama over his children and heirs as those seemingly loyal to him choose sides in a battle for the succession.emChildren of Dune/em, as the title suggests, focuses more closely on Paul's actual children, the steps they take as adults, and the conflicts that break out for control over influence and closeness to the siblings. It's also, as you may have heard, the book where one of Paul's kids merges his body with sandworms to become an indestructible hybrid creature, but that's a longer story than we have time to tell here today./p pThe complexities of these plots, and many other subplots including the return of Duncan Idaho (yes, really) to the story, means thatemChildren of Dune/emis somewhat streamlined as a miniseries, and some of the weirder elements are smoothed over or ditched entirely in order to make the story a bit more straightforward for audiences that aren't necessarily Herbert devotees. Still, the propulsive plotting that made the original miniseries work is still there, and the sequel boasts an even more impressive set of stars, including Susan Sarandon, Alice Krige, and a young James McAvoy as Paul's son, Leto./p pLike its predecessor,emChildren of Dune/emwas well-received upon its release, earning high ratings for the network and winning another Emmy for Visual Effects, along with several other nominations. So, should you watch it now? Sure, if you want to see all the different ways this story can be handled, and you have the patience to track it down. It's not readily streaming anywhere right now, but your local library might have a copy floating around, particularly if they use the Hoopla digital rental service. As we head into what might be an exciting new era foremDune/emadaptations, it's very much worth remembering where we've been before./p pstrongWant more epic science fiction? Check out the best sci-fi movies and TV shows a href="https://www.peacocktv.com/stream/movies/sci-fi-fantasy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"streaming on Peacock/a right now./strong/p