DUNE: PROPHECY Revealed Desmond Hart’s Identity in Episode ONE (Through His Costume)

Nikitović shares, “Yes!” When asked if she teased Desmond Hart’s identity in his costumes at all. “It was one detail that I don’t know whether the audience caught, but Desmond is always, even in the beginning when he arrives, wearing or carrying a piece of black fabric as part of his Dune: Prophecy costumes. And that black fabric is an embossed fabric from his mother’s Sisterhood costume. So, actually, when he was born, his mother, Tula, young Tula, wrapped him in the costume and gave him away, so that’s the only thing that he has from her. And that was a really important thing for Travis Fimmel’s Desmond to have—this one piece of his mother and her family with him.”

Dune: Prophecy showrunner Alison Schapker echoes these sentiments about teasing Desmond Hart’s identity right from the start, noting, “I don’t know if people will notice, but the cloth he’s carrying the first time we see him—when Desmond Hart appears and walks up to the palace—he has this black cloth, and that is really his token of his mother. Through the whole series, he uses it in private moments as a kind of ‘keeping alive’ of his drive and his connection, until finally he meets her and is clutching her actual dress and realizing what once was a piece of his actual baby blanket. That she swaddled him in Sisterhood cloth. He’s held on to [it] and now he’s finally with his mother. We tried to do things like that to kind of build in and foreshadow where the story was going.”

Slipping in the piece of Sisterhood cloth, which is so specifically embossed, a texture-story that Bojana Nikitović took extra care to create in the series, is genius. Nikitović shares of the Dune: Prophecy fabric, “We created a new technique… The embossing that we were using on a Sisterhood costumes, on the collar and on the upper sleeves, it’s also kind of a printing that makes fabric react in a certain way.” And so, for the eagle-eyed Dune: Prophecy viewer, there was no mistaking what Desmond’s scrap of fabric really is or where it came from. We love the confidence this Easter egg conveys. Dune: Prophecy wanted to reward its viewers for watching carefully and putting pieces and mysteries together—and that’s the sign of a truly well-built show.

And so, it’s no surprise that Dune: Prophecy is nominated for four Emmys this year, including Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes for Nikitović’s work. Any series that can use its costumes with such nuance, to help form its very narrative, deserves the win in our book.

You can read our full interview with Dune: Prophecy costume designer Bojana Nikitović here. Dune: Prophecy season one is now streaming on HBO Max.

Editor’s Note: Dune: Prophecy is a Legendary Entertainment production. Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks.