A prophecy dating all the way back to the pre-pandemic world — 2019 — spoke of a coming television show set in the same universe as what proved to be director Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed 2021 film “Dune,” the first half of an adaptation of the influential 1965 science-fiction novel of the same name by Frank Herbert.

The show was to be inspired by the 2012 novel “Sisterhood of Dune,” by Brian Herbert, son of Frank, and Kevin J. Anderson, and be set about 10,000 years before the events of “Dune” and the rise of would-be messiah Paul Atreides.

Eventually, an update to the prophecy — in the form of a news release from studio Warner Bros. Discovery — revealed the arrival on Nov. 17 of the first of six episodes of what had become known as“Dune: Prophecy” (a change from the working title “Dune: The Sisterhood”) on HBO and the streaming service Max.

What the prophecy failed to mention was how the series — while laudably cinematic in nature and feeling very much as if it belongs within the universe of “Dune” and Villeneuve’s likewise excellent 2024 sequel, “Dune: Part Two” — was that it would be weighed down by presenting the viewer with so many characters.

Were you one of those folks struggling to keep track of who was who early on in another sprawling HBO series, “Game of Thrones”? Buckle up.

Its the first episode alone, “Prophecy” introduces us to, among others, an emperor and his wife; their daughter, a princess; her stepbrother; a boy of 9 years from a powerful family set to wed the princess in a political arrangement; an Atreides sharing an attraction with the princess; a soldier with a mysterious ability; several members of the religious order of females we’ve come to know as the Bene Gesserit; and the order’s leader and her sister, who come from the long line of Harkonnens, a family well known to those familiar with “Dune.”

However, it isn’t as much the surplus of characters that keeps “Prophecy” from becoming engrossing television but that, at least through the four episodes made available for review, a central figure never emerges. The series is crying out for a man or woman in whom we can become deeply invested. He or she need not be a messiah figure but someone around whom everything ultimately revolves.

To be charitable — and you have to squint — we get three primary characters: Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), who wants to study with the order; soldier Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel, “Vikings”), who fights on behalf of Ynez’s father, Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong, “The Penguin”), and who has emerged from an encounter with a giant sandworm on the already all-important planet of Arrakis a changed man; and Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson, “Chernobyl”), the powerful and ambitious leader of the order.

After some tone-setting on-screen text — “Victory is celebrated in the light, but it is won in the darkness,” it states — the exposition-heavy first few minutes of the series’ first installment, “The Hidden Hand,” begins with narration from Valya. Her words are accompanied by images of her as a younger woman (an intriguing Jessica Barden of “The End of the F***ing World”) on a harsh, snow-covered planet. She tells us history remembers her family as cowards due to their role in humanity’s war against sentient machines — which, at this point in the timeline, is only several decades in the past — thanks to lies spun by House Atreides.

“And I, Valya Harkonnen, would set out to change it,” she says, her younger self overlooking a great chasm.

She would join the sisterhood, becoming a favorite of its aged mother superior, Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson), and supports her efforts to create a genetic registry to help the order manipulate royal unions in the name of creating future leaders who can be controlled. Perhaps as important or more, Valya develops the powerful mind-controlling “voice” we see used by another in the films.

Three decades later and with skeletons in her closet, Valya wields much power, with her biological sister, Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams, “The Father”), one of her trusted lieutenants. (In the season’s third hour, “Sisterhood Above All,” we learn more about each woman’s respective journey to the order.)

Valya, however, meets her match in the purpose-driven Desmond, who makes his mark on the story before the end of the premiere.

“Dune: Prophecy” is strongest in that first episode, director Anna Foerster (“Outlander”) utilizing interesting camera work that makes the installment more big-screen-like than the three that follow it. Like those episodes, though, its storytelling is merely adequate.

Alison Schapker, a producer on shows including “Lost” and “Alias,” serves as showrunner, and we’ll need to give her the full season to judge what she’s accomplished with “Dune: Prophecy.” Two-thirds of the way through, though, this series — greatly concerned, as are the films, with the “spice” produced on Arrakis — could use a bit more zest.

The show hasn’t been labeled a “limited series,” suggesting WBD hopes it will be received well enough by viewers to justify a second season, something Watson has said she would welcome.

Given what we’ve seen so far, any talk of continuing on with the series feels a little far from prophetic.

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‘DUNE: PROPHECY’

2 stars (out of 4)

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: Premieres 9 p.m. ET Nov. 17 on HBO, with new episodes airing Sundays through Dec. 22 (and streaming on Max)

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