Legendary and Warner Bros. Discovery have a lot of hopes riding on the success of the Dune saga. The long-awaited big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s beloved novel became a critically adored and multi-Oscar winning blockbuster, and the sequel is on its way this year (hopefully?) Since everything in Hollywood now has to be a multi-pronged expanded universe, that means HBO Max has big plans for a Dune prequel series. Dune: Sisterhood is supposed to focus on the Bene Gesserit, the narrative’s sect of women who pull the strings on millennia of political intrigue. In 2019, HBO Max, when it was throwing money around, gave the show a straight-to-series order. Now, things aren’t going great for the streaming service thanks to Warner Bros. Discovery’s new awful CEO and some astonishing cost-cutting measures.

And that seems to have impacted Dune: Sisterhood. As reported by Deadline, the project’s creator, director, and leading actress have all exited the show. Johan Renck, best known for Chernobyl, was set to direct the first two episodes. He’s now gone. Shirley Henderson, who was going to play Tula Harkonnen, has also jumped ship. Co-creator Diane Ademu-John, who wrote the pilot script, previously stepped down to be replaced by Alison Schapker.

That’s a lot of exits. It’s not uncommon for people to come and go with big projects like this but to this number at once is less comforting. A spokesperson for HBO Max told Deadline:

‘There are some creative changes being made to the production in an effort to create the best series possible and stay true to the source material. Johan Renck has completed his work on the series and a new director will be brought on; through mutual agreement, Johan is moving on to pursue other projects. Additionally, Shirley Henderson will be exiting the series and will no longer be playing Tula Harkonnen.’

Deadline claims that Renck left when HBO Max did not like his vision for the series and how it differed from the aesthetic of Denis Villeneuve, who directed the film. These exits now mean that the production could be pushed back several months to give the new showrunner time to work on things in their own manner.

Clearly, they have high hopes for something that could rise to the heights of other HBO high-concept genre shows like The Last of Us and House of the Dragon. The material is certainly rich with potential, but there’s a reason many people in the industry don’t have a lot of optimism over HBO Max these days. Fingers crossed this doesn’t get deleted from existence and written off for tax purposes.