Viewers watching Dune: Prophecy may notice a distinct difference between the Harkonnens in the TV series and Denis Villeneuve’s films. Dune: Prophecy’s cast features highly regarded actors Emily Watson and Olivia Williams as Valya and Tula Harkonnen as they establish the Bene Gesserit order 10,000 years before the events of the movies. Actors Stellan Skarsgård, Austin Butler, and Dave Bautista played Harkonnen descendants much further along in Dune’s timeline.

The film actors gave unforgettable performances, interpreting Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Feyd-Rautha, and Rabban in a manner that perfectly represented the villainy in Herbert’s novels. Beyond their performances, the characters became distinct for their eerie pale skin and shaved heads, giving them a distinguishable presence in the films. That pale skin wasn’t just a trait of the Harkonnens, however, but a trait of all characters from the Harkonnen home planet, Geidi Prime, such as their soldiers on Arrakis.

Dune: Prophecy’s Harkonnen Characters Don’t Have Pale Skin

Dune: Prophecy’s Harkonnens Are From Lankiveil

Valya and Tula Harkonnen are introduced as some of the main characters in Dune: Prophecy, yet neither has that distinct, pale skin like the Harkonnen characters do in the films. While it may seem like a visual inconsistency, this is actually an intentional result of world-building in the TV series. In episode 1, it’s revealed that the Harkonnen characters in the TV series come from the planet Lankiveil, a cold water-based planet. This is a different location from Geidi Prime, where the Harkonnens in the movies are from.

How Dune: Prophecy’s Timeline Explains Why Harkonnens Look Different From The Movies

The Harkonnen Home Planet Shifts To Geidi Prime Between The Show & Movies

The Dune films depict the Harkonnens with pale white skin and shaved heads due to the environment of Geidi Prime, their home planet. The planet’s black sun was also the reason why the scenes on Geidi Prime in the arena were shot in black & white and why they would regain color whenever someone went inside. However, according to expanded Dune lore, Geidi Prime didn’t become their home planet until after the wars against the thinking machines. The war left a vacancy in the planet’s leadership that was filled by House Harkonnen.

Lankiveil, the planet the Harkonnen characters in the TV show are from, is still ruled by the Harkonnens during the film, but it’s become the seat of the minor House Rabban. At some point in Dune’s timeline between the TV series and the film, it can be assumed that House Harkonnen migrated their home world to Geidi Prime. This could even be a plotline in Dune: Prophecy, as the Harkonnens in the show establish their power through multiple means.