‘Dune: Prophecy’s’ Faoileann Cunningham on Sister Jen’s harrowing series journey (exclusive)

Amid the sacred stone walls of the Sisterhood’s fortress-like headquarters on the planet Wallach IX, the acolytes of Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and Reverend Mother Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams) in “Dune: Prophecy” struggle to make sense of the strange happenings of their order as forces internal and external try to destroy their influential heritage.

Sister Jen is one of the foremost academy students, who displays an uncanny level of common sense, uncensored intuition, and outspokenness that might make her one of the frontrunners to claim a leadership role should tragedy befall her stoic-but-flawed mentors, Valya and Tula.

Actress Faoileann Cunningham, who had a brief role in director Robert Eggers’ Viking saga “The Northman,” portrays this headstrong apprentice amid an incredible ensemble cast that allowed her to significantly stretch her range in HBO/Max’s six-episode prequel miniseries. After being taken under Tula’s wing and entrusted to harbor dangerous secrets in regards to Lila’s (Chloe Lea) resurrection and recovery, Sister Jen has come to the forefront of this remarkable series to assert herself in myriad ways that will likely resonate into the newly-announced second season.

“It was very fun,” Cunningham tells Space.com. “Obviously they’re challenging scenes but working with those guys was so fun and we’d obviously built up a good rapport across the whole series. To be honest, sometimes those things are easier than the big set pieces where there’s a million people on set for a day, so you can just connect to the other actor and do what you need to do. I really enjoyed it, and it was nice that we shot those scenes in sequence which made it a lot easier. Chloe and I are very good friends, and the same with Olivia. So it was very joyful. A lot is happening so you have to reset and go, ‘Okay, I didn’t know that five seconds ago.’”