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Dune doesn’t have a post-credits scene because Denis Villeneuve is never doing one

Villeneuve says the theatrical version is the director's cut too

Dune

Does the Dune ending have a post-credits scene? No, and director Denis Villeneuve will never make a science fiction movie that has one. Speaking about the growing practice, the Arrival filmmaker isn’t keen one bit.

“I don’t like post-credits scenes,” Villeneuve responded when asked about the topic by NME. “There is a very specific final emotion that I was looking for with the final frame [of Dune] and I don’t want to mess with that. So no, I don’t use post-credits scenes. I’ve never done that and I would never.” Without spoiling anything, Dune ends at a very particular moment, that feels like the ending of one story, and start of another.

It feels like a transition – obviously purposeful for the possible Dune 2 – and his point on massing with the vibe of conclusions is a valid one. Sometimes post-credit scenes can harm a perfectly good ending, or reduce the significance in someway. A particular recent big budget spy movie, for example, is sure to remind us the character is returning, lessening the impact of the previous two-and-a-half hours.

Villeneuve is very much all about giving audiences the movie he wants to make, and nothing more. On the subject of doing a longer cut of Dune, one that may stretch to the six hour mark, he’s adamant it doesn’t exist, nor will it.

“The director’s cut is what people are watching in theatres right now,” he says. “There will be no other cut. Yes I could have made a much longer, more contemplative movie, but that was not the plan.”

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Dune stars Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Zendaya, and Dave Bautista, among many others, in a stacked cast. The film concerns an embittered battle over the supply of the drug Spice on the desert planet of Arrakis, many years into the future.

You can catch Dune in theatres now, or on streaming service HBO Max.