Dune: Part One spoilers follow.

Denis Villeneuve has shed some light on why Dune: Part One ends where it does.

The adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction saga was deliberately broken down into a smaller chunk for Villeneuve's movie, unlike in David Lynch's attempt to tackle the whole first book in 1984.

The 2021 version cuts off at the pivotal moment of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) embracing his destiny in joining the Fremen to spread peace and freedom across Arrakis.

zendaya as chani and timothee chalamet as paul atreides in dune
CHIABELLA JAMES//Warner Bros.

Speaking about picking an ending point for Dune: Part One, Villeneuve told Empire Online that he really never wavered on Paul's pivotal choice as a place to stop the story for now.

"My first intuition was to break there. And then we tried also to break it a bit later," he recalled. "Because in the book, there's a natural moment – there's like a two-year gap or something like that.

"But it didn't work out because it really felt like at the very end of two hours and a half, you were suddenly starting a new story – which is the one of Paul and Jessica being introduced to Fremen culture and being accepted by the Fremen.

sharon duncan brewster as liet kynes in dune 2020
Chiabella James//Warner Bros.

"It was feeling like the beginning of a new chapter, which felt very heavy at the end of the [moment]... I'm 100% positively convinced that we stuck at the right moment, where we finally feel that Paul has [gone] from being a boy to an adult, and having all this arc of this first part completed."

The second part of the story is in the works, with Warner Bros recently starting work with Denis Villeneuve on Dune: Part Two following the first film's record-breaking box office success.

Dune is out now in cinemas and will also be available to watch on HBO Max in the US.

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