Diane Ademu-John named New Showrunner for HBO Max’s Dune series

Deadline is reporting that Diane Ademu-John (The Haunting of Bly Manor) has been tapped as writer, showrunner, and executive producer for HBO Max’s Dune: The Sisterhood. She replaces Jon Spaihts, who stepped down in November 2019 to focus on writing the script for the new Dune feature film.

Dune: The Sisterhood, based on Frank Herbert’s classic novel Dune and the popular sci-fi franchise it spawned, received a straight-to-series order from the WarnerMedia streaming service.

Herbert’s Dune portrays a future in which humanity has spread across the galaxy to thousands of worlds, all ruled by the Padishah Emperor, The Imperium. “Dune: The Sisterhood” is told through the eyes of a mysterious order of women known as the Bene Gesserit. Given extraordinary abilities by their mastery of the body and the mind, the Bene Gesserit expertly weave through the feudal politics and intrigue of The Imperium, pursuing plans of their own that will ultimately lead them to the enigmatic planet Arrakis, known to its inhabitants as Dune. It will serve as a prequel to the films.

Denis Villeneuve, who is directing, co-writing and producing the new Dune film, also is set to executive produce the series and direct its pilot episode. Spaights and Villeneuve exec produce along with Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt and Kim Herbert for the Frank Herbert estate. Kevin J. Anderson will co-produce. The series hails from Legendary Television.

Ademu-John most recently worked as an executive producer and writer on the Netflix horror series “The Haunting of Bly Manor.” Prior to that, she worked on shows such as “Empire” at Fox, “The Originals” and “The Vampire Diaries” at The CW, and “Medium” and “Crossing Jordan” at NBC.