Dune Director Refuses To Use Post-Credits Scenes In His Movies

Dune director Denis Villeneuve recently revealed that he refuses to use post-credits scenes in his movies. The movie, which is an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel of the same name, is the first installment in a planned trilogy. Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, and Jason Momoa headline the star-studded film, which also sees brief a performance from Zendaya. After nearly a year of COVID delays, Dune arrives in theaters and on HBO Max on October 22.

Villeneuve, who also directed Blade Runner: 2049 back in 2017, confirmed that scripts for a Dune: Part 2 have already being written. While Warner Bros. hasn’t given the sequel a greenlight quite yet, Villeneuve said he felt “optimistic” about Dune: Part 2‘s chances in an interview with Total Film last August. A sequel project depends almost entirely on Dune’s HBO Max performance, with streaming services becoming a huge measure of a film’s success since the start of the pandemic. And with Dune having ended on a something of a cliffhanger, fans of the movie are surely eager to see what happens next.

But where other blockbuster franchise films might tease a sequel in an after-credits scene, Dune is the exception. In an interview with NME, Villeneuve opened up about why he doesn’t like post-credits scenes. The Dune director explained how he wanted the film to end with “a very specific final emotion,” and didn’t want to “mess that up” with an after-credits scene. Villeneuve’s full quote can be read below:

“I don’t like post-credits scenes. 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.”

Villeneuve’s stance on post-credits scenes are a complete 180 from that of Marvel, whose films are famous for teasing the studio’s next big project in the mid/after-credits. But similarly to the MCU, Dune does have the potential to expand into a massive franchise. HBO Max has already ordered a spinoff series, titled Dune: Sisterhood. With a whopping 400 plus pages of original source material to draw inspiration from, there’s plenty of directions a possible Dune franchise could go in.  

It’s almost positive that Dune is getting a sequel, especially after Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff all but confirmed a Dune 2. It’ll be interesting to see how Villeneuve continues to expand on his take of the Dune universe, and how the sci-fi epic will inspire future projects. While details surrounding the upcoming HBO Max series and the confirming sequel remain unknown, one thing’s for sure: audiences certainly won’t stick around through the credits.