Audiences won't be treated to a third roaring rampage of revenge - and maybe that's no bad thing...
ADVERTISEMENTLong before Quentin Tarantino announced that his tenth and final film would be The Movie Critic, there had been rumours and speculation that the director might treat us to a third instalment in his Kill Bill story.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 was originally released in theatres in 2003 and the follow-up, _Kill Bill: Volume 2,_hit the big screens the following year. Tarantino has long maintained that he considers both Kill Bills to be two halves of one single film, rather than two separate movies – hence The Movie Critic being his “tenth” film when he has in fact released 11.
Whatever helps you sleep at night, Quentin... Audiences still had to pay for two separate cinema tickets for each film though, so let’s not fool ourselves - The Movie Critic will be his 11th film.
Many thought that Kill Bill: Volume 3 would pick up the narrative of Beatrix "The Bride" Kiddo (Uma Thurman) and her daughter B.B. (with a rumoured casting of Thurman’s own daughter, actress Maya Hawke). Theories about a threequel mainly revolved around vengeful retaliations against The Bride by Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), whose death is not confirmed by the end of Volume 2, and Nikki Bell (Ambrosia Kelley), who was just a child when she witnessed the murder of her mother Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) at the hands - sorry, blade - of The Bride.
Tarantino himself had stated in 2019 that he was still in talks with Thurman and that “if any of my movies were going to spring from my other movies, it would be a third ‘Kill Bill.’”
In 2021, Tarantino further discussed what a potential Kill Bill: Volume 3 might look like: “I think it’s just revisiting the characters 20 years later and just imagining the Bride and her daughter, B.B., having 20 years of peace, and then that peace is shattered,” the filmmaker said. “And now the Bride and B.B. are on the run and just the idea of being able to cast Uma and cast her daughter Maya in the thing would be fucking exciting.”
Now, Tarantino has officially put the kibosh on the theories.
While speaking with the Flemish newspaper De Morgen, Tarantino said: “I don't see that happening. My last film is about a film critic, a male critic and it’s set in the 70s,” - thereby also quashing any rumours that The Movie Critic would be about Pauline Kael.
Well, there that is.
The idea sounded fun, but ultimately, the The Bride concluded her roaring rampage of revenge by the end of the second chapter, and Tarantino's decision to nix Kill Bill 3 secures the existing Kill Bill saga's legacy. Because, let’s face facts, when it comes to legacy sequels and franchise extensions, we’ve already seen memorable movies followed up by substandard follow-ups. In recent memory, think The Matrix Resurrections or both Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny as disheartening franchise closers.
And for those already dreading a cinematic landscape without Quentin Tarantino, fear not. The writer-filmmaker has expressed interest in other creative outlets, noting in interviews that he could direct limited series or plays. In 2021, he published his first novel, a novelization of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and while promoting his 2022 book “Cinema Speculation,” Tarantino revealed plans to shoot an eight-episode television series.
