Best distant prequel TV series ever?
Dune: Prophecy, House of the Dragon, or Krypton?
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I’ll break down the top three TV series that take place way, way, way before their parent shows, and then I’ll reveal which is the number one pick I recommend.
How many times have you been watching your favorite television series and wondered what were the main characters’ grandparents up to back in their day? Prequels provide a peek into the lives of the grandpappies and great-great-grandmas of our beloved heroes. Whether or not there was a high demand to check out the canonical past of these shows remains unclear. What is perfectly clear now is that prequels are a thing, and they’re here to stay.
I’ve been on record on this topic before, and I’ll reiterate that I, for one, think the only good prequels have already been made. And frankly, we were lucky as a species that we even got that much. For every Better Call Saul, there are at least 50 utterly pointless prequel shows made. Dexter: Original Sin was a pleasant surprise, but that doesn’t mean any new prequels should get produced. Agent Carter proved to be a throwback worth watching, but it was not long for this world, like so many others. Heck, even Smallville, which one could debate whether or not it was a true prequel, was at least a ton of fun. And the reason I mentioned Smallville being a true prequel is because, well, there would have had to have been a show called like “Metropolis” before, and then Smallville. But that’s getting into the weeds.
Alas, Hollywood will never stop making these absolutely inconsequential series until the inevitable apocalypse. So until then, we will endure the likes of The Winchesters, Walker: Independence, Gotham, Rings of Power, the previous generations of Yellowstone in 1883 and 1923, Caprica, Clarice, NCIS: Origins, and the TED prequel series, Young Hercules, Young Sheldon, Alien: Earth, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, and whatever Star Wars or Star Trek show that takes place somewhere in their respective timelines. The list goes on.
Most prequels range from okay at best to nausea-inducing awfulness, but the majority of these useless stories about the fictional past take place in an era that might possibly be something we care about. Of course, due to the nature of any prequel, they are all ultimately a waste of time since we basically know the outcomes. That being said, a prequel that is set in a time period that was featured in a more popular entry of its franchise, or is at least an interesting year in history in general, has a chance of being watchable. In other words, a movie like Rogue One is deeply flawed, but it was a blast getting a glimpse of the original trilogy era of Star Wars.
If you choose to have your prequel take place several generations before anything happens in whatever the main show is, then, well, you’ve gone from “we don’t need this” to “why should I care?” A prequel set decades or centuries before the events of the prime series is a recipe for boredom. The aforementioned Yellowstone spin-offs and the Lord of the Rings disaster known as Rings of Power qualify for the distinction of being a distant prequel, but those aren’t on my list. But they are honorable mentions — well, maybe not so honorable, but I did mention them, and that’s got to count for something, right?
Dune: Prophecy: Set 10,000 years before the ascent of Paul Atreides. This is Dune: Prophecy. Nope, 10,000 was not a typo. That is the correct amount of zeros in that amount of years. To be completely honest, I didn’t last 10 minutes of watching the first episode. A snoozer right from the start, the distant prequel series on HBO or HBO Max was a letdown. But the fact is, it’s an unnecessary live-action prequel that takes place an absurdly long time ago. That just meant it was doomed from day one. And I understand Dune‘s lore is like crazy long, but this just… I had nothing in it from minute one.
Dune as a whole is of course daunting; it’s a thick brick of deep lore. The David Lynch ’80s film adaptation is a bizarre spectacle, but that’s any Lynchian project. There was a 2000 TV miniseries followed by a Children of Dune limited series special in 2003 that continued the complex tale. The Sci-Fi Channel Dunes are described as being more faithful to Frank Herbert’s — I think I’m saying that correctly, it’s not Herb or anything, right? Anyway, they’re supposed to be more faithful to the original books, and since I will most likely not ever attempt to read the legendary novels, I will take people’s word on this. The modern Denis Villeneuve — another name I just cannot pronounce — Dune and Dune: Part Two, and as of this recording, soon to be the Dune: Part Three, the third film in this trilogy, these films have reignited the science fiction classic’s mainstream popularity. The new films are visually stunning and epic in scale, but what is most impressive is that these movies offer a more comprehensible and easier to digest plot.
As exciting as it is to discover or rediscover such a vast universe of sci-fi stories, I found my fascination’s limit with the 2024 Dune: Prophecy series. This prequel show has all the dressing and imagery related to the film starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya — Zendaya’s last name redacted, I have no idea how to even say that name or how many names there are. But these big movies are great; the series did not share any of my interest. There is a bit of creative safety by setting a show’s story so far in the past, because there’s a good chance any and all of these characters will be long dead by the time any new canonical film is released, and a writer could always just say that in the event of an inconsistency, the history could have been misinterpreted.
In the case of Dune: Prophecy, since it happened so many thousands of years before Paul Atreides even thinks about sandworms, the specific events of Dune: Prophecy may not even come up. Aside from the overall outcome of what house is or isn’t in power, who knows if any version of Duncan Idaho would even bother mentioning any of Prophecy‘s events? It would be the equivalent of a modern-day show like Tracker have its main character, Justin Hartley’s Colter — it is Colter, right? I should really bone up on the names of these people — but it’s like if Justin Hartley in Tracker brings up ancient Rome dynasties, which he may; it doesn’t sound too unlike what present-day dudes like to talk about. More accurately to where we as humans are in our place in 2026 as I’m recording this, it’d be more like maybe talking about the end of the Ice Age or something similar in everyday conversation. Or maybe it’d be like Alien: Earth referencing the movie Ice Age, which would just be insane. It’s not simply the fact that Dune: Prophecy is set so ridiculously long before the main story. No, what turned me off from it is that it is, to be frank, boring — not to be Frank Herbert, but you know what I mean. Reason to Rec: While this show isn’t for me, I can appreciate the pure science fiction aspect of it. If you’re a lore hound that can’t get enough no matter what it is, or merely a completionist, then this Dune prequel is something you’d gravitate to. For me, though, for a story that has so much to do with spice, it could be a little spicier.
Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon: 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, it’s House of the Dragon, or Hot D for short. You’d think that after two centuries, technology would have significantly improved, but this show resembles regular Game of Thrones and all its medieval motifs. This stagnant trope appears in other big-name IPs such as Star Wars, which has stories taking place hundreds of years before Anakin Skywalker knew what sand even was, let alone hated it, and yet there are still plenty of starships and other advanced technology around. I suppose whether it’s futuristic tech or if it’s dealing with sword-and-sandals type fantasy, progress just kind of plateaus.
And as a prequel, House of the Dragon certainly doesn’t make any breakthroughs in storytelling. Plenty of royals and small folk alike still love the intrigue surrounding the Iron Throne and its mythology, and it brings fans back time and time again. Personally, after the main series ended, my interest got as cold as the Night King. GoT‘s disappointing final season has been discussed and documented since the eighth season — the fifth and final season wrapped up in 2019, so to say I wasn’t crazy about how the finale ended is not a fresh take. But the fact remains that by the time Thrones ended, the bloom had long left the rose. After investing years of following the HBO series, of course me and millions of other watchers tuned in to see what would happen next, for better or for worse.
As I said, there still are fans who will need their dragon fix, and House of the Dragon offers a flashback to what people liked about the whole thing in the first place. Alas, with the prime series over, there is no obligation to stream any new episodes depicting what we already know. Reason to Rec: I watched the first season of House of the Dragon, and I greatly enjoyed Matt Smith’s unhinged performance, but even with time jumps I knew were coming and hopping around different points in time, it made it difficult to keep up with, or rather, difficult to want to keep up with. At the end of the day, if you are a myth head and need to feed your dragon addiction, then get yourself some Hot D.
Krypton: In 2018, the Sci-Fi Channel debuted a series that would last only two seasons about Superman’s grandpappy. Krypton being the name of the show and the planet, not the name of Kal-El’s grandfather, though that would have been amazing if the lead guy’s name was actually just Krypton. Now, this prequel tale took place on the doomed planet, centered around Seg-El, played by Cameron Cuffe, who was fated to be the aforementioned grandpappy of the Man of Steel. The main character’s name is an interesting homage to one of the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel. I suppose the other half of the creative duo, Joe Shuster, didn’t get the nod, since I guess having our hero be called Shu-Star didn’t sound as cool. Though he would get some credit in the ’80s live-action Superboy show, which took place in Shusterville, Florida, so there you go.
Krypton took a more fascinating approach to a year-one or prequel type of story. Yes, we all know planet Krypton would explode and parents Jor-El and Lara would send their baby boy rocketing to Earth, where the child would of course be raised by the Kents on a farm in Kansas. This show wasn’t specifically out to disrupt the eventual adventures of Clark Kent, but the canonical history was at risk. Krypton showed the landscape of the fictional world, including the exotic daily life of its denizens, as well as serving up political intrigue. Since this was set in the prime years of Seg-El long before Jor-El was a twinkle in his eye, there were plenty of opportunities to showcase the intrigue of those struggling with the balance of power of the ruling class. So we get a little of Game of Thrones-esque warring houses, and mostly straight-up just a good sci-fi series.
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It really gets cooking, though, when the character of Adam Strange shows up, played by Shaun Sipos — I think I’m saying that correctly. Adam Strange is from what we would consider to be present day. He tells Seg of how his grandson would go on to be the legendary hero Superman. In this version of the mythos, Adam is there on this planet in this time period to warn Seg about the evil Brainiac and his plans to destroy Krypton. Well, Krypton was going to blow up anyway, but our heroes would have to make sure it’s not a premature eruption. The presence of Adam Strange in this way separates this show from many of its prequel contemporaries. We aren’t simply witnessing events playing out to their conclusion as we know it; we now have a time-displaced guy who needs to make sure history isn’t changed. There is a threat and there are stakes, which at least shows a notion that perhaps due to some Back to the Future Part II-type shenanigans, Superman may never ever even be conceived. Reason to Rec: Since Batman had Gotham, Superman not only got Smallville — not to mention the aforementioned ’80s live-action Superboy show — but Superman also got Krypton. But even with an interesting twist, is this series about a bunch of characters loosely adapted from decades of comics worth the time? With only two seasons, it’s not a big commitment, and eventually the character of Lobo appears, so that alone is worth giving this a peek.
Def Rec: This is a tough call, but even though my fandom lies more with the Superman-related mythos, I’m definitely recommending House of the Dragon, because Krypton, while possessing an interesting wrinkle to the prequel formula, is still really just an isolated version of Superman’s past. House of the Dragon provides a steadier link to the canon of Game of Thrones. So even if Hot D isn’t quite your thing, it is still a curious look into the expanded history of the stories in general.
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The Eric Icarus Series
Unable to hide his flying abilities, a shy high school student’s plan to hide in plain sight as just another superhero backfires after an attack leaves him as the only hope to stop a diabolical villain.
Recruited by tech mogul Baron Maddox, Eric Boxworth becomes Eric Icarus, a maskless member of the Super Society, tech-based defenders of New St. Cloud City. Eric’s miraculous, natural flight power is disguised by a decoy anti-gravity backpack to avoid getting dissected in a lab. Eric and his bubbly, good-natured classmate Jaycee — the armored hero Powerhouse — must stop a madman from creating an empire built on stolen powers. Fans of young superheroes, found family tropes, and high-stakes action will love this YA sci-fi adventure series.
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