‘Dune: The Sisterhood’ director Johan Renck and star Shirley Henderson quit HBO Max show over ‘creative changes’
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: 'Dune' prequel series, 'Dune: The Sisterhood' went through a mild creative shake-up last year when the show's creator, Diane Ademu-John, vacated her role as co-showrunner. But, it seems like the project is under the radar of change again! 'Chernobyl' Director Johan Renck and Shirley Henderson exit the series as well. The reason for the Emmy-winning Director and 'The House Across The Street' actress exiting the HBO series is caused due to a creative shuffle in production and a small break turning into a major production hiatus. But, even though this seems like a surface-level reason to quit the series, there are many layers to this that might have caused the ultimate exit.
The project 'Dune: The Sisterhood' was announced back in 2019 and has been under maintenance ever since. The upcoming series is based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 epic sci-fi novel, exploring the mysterious order of women known as the Bene Gesserit, who have developed astounding capabilities due to their control over their minds and bodies.
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Has 'Dune: The Sisterhood’ entered pre-scheduled hiatus?
An HBO spokesperson talked about this major shift in production and shared some light on the entire saga, "As 'Dune: The Sisterhood (wt)’ has entered a pre-scheduled hiatus, there are some creative changes being made to the production in an effort to create the best series possible and stay true to the source material," the spokesperson told TheWrap. "Johan Renck has completed his work on the series and a new director will be brought on; through mutual agreement, Johan is moving on to pursue other projects. Additionally, Shirley Henderson will be exiting the series and will no longer be playing Tula Harkonnen," they added.
Creative indifferences and auteur approach
The two-time Emmy Award-winning Director, Johan Renck, who gave the world a peek into his creativity with the HBO mini-series 'Chernobyl' was set to create the first two episodes of the 'Dune' prequel in addition to serving as EP for the pilot of the season. The shooting was set to start in Budapest, which was evident as per Renck's Instagram post, which was deleted after the exit of the director from the production. The production also came out with the news that Renck gave production some tips on the script, which then didn't coincide with the streamer’s vision for 'Dune: The Sisterhood'. The reports came out with only the reason behind Renck's exit and weren't very clear if Henderson's exit from the show was because of creative indifferences or due to Johan Renck quitting the show.