Movie Spotlight: Dynasty

A war between Dark and Light Celestials is tearing apart a dimension called Equinox, a world separate from Earth entirely. Refugees who escaped that war carry it with them, and a group known as the Chosen Ones has one job: hunt down an Immortal and take back the souls it stole. That is the premise of Dynasty, and it started, of all places, as a single page of poetry.

Lioness TeLaine wrote that poem first. Then she kept going until it became a feature film she wrote, directed, and starred in. What if the legacy you leave behind isn’t something you inherit, but something you build from nothing, in a universe you invented yourself?

From a one-page poem to another dimension

TeLaine says the poem came first, a single page she wanted to expand into something cinematic. “The war with the Light and Dark celestials is how I see war against the dark and light in real life, a war between good and the evil,” she said. She describes writing in a “heightened imaginative way,” and when the poem turned into a script, it kept expanding outward. “I created a story beyond Earth and delved into dimensions outside of the earthly one we live in,” she said.

A title about legacy

The word Dynasty is doing double duty here. TeLaine calls it both conceptual and literal. Dynasty is built as a Black-led sci-fi franchise, and for her that means something closer to permanence than a single release. “It’s about leaving art behind that lives forever, leaving something that lives beyond you,” she said. “Art is like energy to me. It can never be destroyed, and it will always exist.”

Equinox and the shape of a free world

Equinox, the dimension at war in the film, wasn’t built as a dystopia. TeLaine imagined it as something closer to a lost utopia. “Equinox was a representation of a free world. An equal world, almost a utopia,” she said. “The rules were fair. No hierarchy, every soul accounted for, and the autonomy to govern oneself.” That framing gives the war in the film higher stakes: it isn’t just territory being fought over, it’s a way of living.

Thriving versus surviving, light versus dark

Underneath the cosmic battle, TeLaine says she was chasing something more grounded. “Thriving vs surviving. Existing vs living,” is how she put the real question of the film. She wanted the war between Dark and Light Celestials to work as a mirror rather than a simple morality tale. “There are universal laws, and the war against light and dark was just simply a story that unfolds the law of duality,” she said. “The good vs the bad when none of it is really good nor bad. It simply is.” It’s a loose way to frame conflict, less about picking a winner and more about naming the contrast.

Writing, directing, and building a universe of characters

TeLaine wrote, directed, and stars as Ajna, and she says that overlap was less a logistical challenge than the point. “I lived through the things I wrote about, so I was able to not only create the story because it was true to my personal journey, but I was also able to convey that on screen as an actress,” she said. As producer, she also kept creative control over the project, which she called important to her.

Around her, the film builds out a large ensemble: Jarric Tucker as Tikci, Nichole Taylor as Suffer, and rapper Lil Flip as Divine. TeLaine says Lil Flip brought something specific to the tone. “His character brought a grittiness that was urban and aggressive,” she said, adding that he pushes the audience toward taking sides as the story moves. “That’s engaging, and that’s what I want when someone watches the film.”

Beyond one movie

Dynasty comes from Rise Celestial Studios and Telaine Studios 7, and TeLaine is already thinking past the film itself. She wants the world to keep expanding into gaming, illustration and publishing, sequels, and television. “Building a world as such allows the Dynasty to live on,” she said. “The story or the legacy will never die.”

What to know before you press play

Asked what she’d want a first-time viewer to know, TeLaine kept it short. “It’s a Black-led sci-fi and an award-winning film,” she said. That’s the whole pitch, and the rest is Equinox, the celestials, and a poem that grew into a franchise.

Sci-Fi

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Streaming now on Relay.