The events surrounding Jessica's conception, her birth and her early years with Leto are chronicled in the prequel trilogies Prelude to Dune (1999–2001) and Caladan (2020–2022) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

"[4] Francesca Annis, who portrayed Jessica in the 1984 film Dune, said of the character, "I see her as sort of a supreme matriarch ... She's a mother, a guardian, a guide and an almost mystical figure".

"[6] As Dune begins, Jessica is the Bene Gesserit concubine to the Duke Leto Atreides, and mother to his young son and heir Paul.

Leto has been granted control of the lucrative planetary fief of Arrakis, and is moving his entire household there from his ocean homeworld of Caladan.

Still, an Atreides daughter is a crucial part of the Bene Gesserit breeding program to eventually produce a super-being they call the Kwisatz Haderach.

[7] Previously managed by House Atreides' longtime enemies, the Harkonnens, Arrakis is an inhospitable desert planet plagued by giant sandworms, and the only known source of melange, the valuable drug at the center of the galactic empire's economy.

Soon the Baron Harkonnen launches an attack, his forces secretly bolstered by Shaddam's fierce Sardaukar warriors and aided by Leto's own trusted Suk doctor, Wellington Yueh.

Thanks to supplies left by Yueh, Paul and Lady Jessica escape into the desert and find refuge with the native Fremen.

[7] Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach, and eventually sets the Imperium on a course lasting thousands of years in the person of his son, Leto II.

Jessica is quoted via epigraph in Heretics of Dune (1984): When strangers meet, great allowance should be made for differences of custom and training.

In the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, it is revealed that Mohiam is Jessica's biological mother.

At this point the Baron drugs and viciously rapes Mohiam, and in retribution she secretly infects him with the disease that will later leave him horribly obese.

The Prelude to Dune series also follows Jessica and Leto's relationship from their first meeting through the birth (and subsequent kidnapping and return) of their son Paul.

The Caladan trilogy (2020–2022) by Brian Herbert and Anderson continues the story of Leto and Jessica's relationship and Paul's early years before the events of Dune.

[11] Annis said that when her agent first called her to say that Lynch and producer Dino De Laurentiis were interested in her for a part in Dune, she declined a meeting because she was working on a television series in northern England and had heard that a "big film star" was already in line for the role.

In those moments when Annis is onscreen, Dune finds the emotional center that has eluded it in its parade of rococo decor and austere special effects.

[16] In her review of the 2000 miniseries, Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com wrote that Reeves "embodies everything that you would expect from Lady Jessica in both bearing and commanding presence.

"[17] Reeves's real-life pregnancy forced producers to recast the role with Alice Krige for the 2003 sequel miniseries, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune.

[18][19][20] Laura Fries of Variety noted, "it's Susan Sarandon [as Farad'n's mother Wensicia] and Alice Krige who steal the thunder as opposing matriarchs of the great royal houses.

"[21] Asher-Perrin noted of the recast, "While it's hard not to miss Reeves's elegance, there is an otherworldliness to Krige that suits a Bene Gesserit 'witch' superbly.

"[27] The Los Angeles Times wrote that Ferguson's Jessica "has a fierceness and a fighting prowess, along with her Bene Gesserit mental abilities, not always evident in the novel.

"[26] IGN explained that in the first film, Jessica is simultaneously driven by a need to protect the son she loves and "a desire to facilitate his rise to power", describing her as "a cunning manipulator who has been training Paul in the superhuman abilities of her order against their wishes, and grooming him for a dark destiny that the young Atreides spends much of the two films hoping to avoid.

"[28] Discussing the second film, Villeneuve said, "Lady Jessica kind of disappears in the second part of the book, and I made sure as I was writing the screenplay to do the opposite, to make sure that she will be active, to bring her back to the front of the story.

[28] While Jessica is depicted in "ornate and ceremonial" costumes as the concubine of Duke Leto in the first film, she wears ritual garments and her face is covered in tattoos in the aftermath of her transformation into the Fremen Reverend Mother in Part Two.

[33] The Telegraph praised a "tremendous, melodramatically on-target" Ferguson in the first film, describing her chemistry with costar Timothée Chalamet, who portrays Paul, as "devotional, bordering on incestuous".

[35] IGN wrote of Part Two, "That Jessica has any sympathy from the audience—despite being a eugenicist and megalomaniac who usurped the religious leadership of an indigenous culture so her son could claim dominion of the universe almost purely out of her own vanity—all comes down to Ferguson imbuing her with inner life and dimension that makes us feel like we understand her even when the script doesn't actually give us every detail about her motivations.