Here's Everything We Know About 'Kill Bill: Vol. 3'

"Never say never" - Quentin Tarantino

by Beckett Mufson

August 20, 2015, 7:15pm

via @FilmStadCoen

An obviously fake trailer for 'Kill Bill: Volume 3"

As the Tarantinoverse ramps up for the Christmas release of Quentin Tarantino's upcoming western, The Hateful Eight, it seems about the time to begin chomping at the bit for his next classic, which lots of people think could be the long-awaited Kill Bill Vol. 3. “Never say never, we'll see, when it comes to Kill Bill 3," the director said at this summer's San Diego Comic-Con.

Comments like this, which Tarantino has slipped into conversation many times over the years, are fueling his cultish fanbase's desires to see the film come to fruition, but there are certainly no official plans for the film—the scant information on its IMDB page is all (rumored). But there is some evidence for a potential threequel to the sword-slinging Bride's (Uma Thurman) bloody revenge plot, starting with the rumor's OG source: Kill Bill: Vol. 1—specifically, the scene in which The Bride kills Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) in front of her daughter (Ambrosia Kelley) and welcomes her to get revenge, which begs for loose ends to be tied up. “When you grow up, and if you still feel raw about it," the Bride says, "I’ll be waiting."

Now, both Bell and the Bride's daughter, B.B. Kiddo (Perla Haney-Jardine) are nearly 20 years old, according to IndieWire, prime age for challenging 45-year-old Uma Thurman to a deathly battle of Hanzo swords—and Tarantino says Thurman's down. "Uma would really like to do it, we talk about it every once in a while,” he added to his Comic-Con statement. “We’ve got to wait for Vernita’s daughter to get old enough to kill her so we’ll see."

If Kill Bill: Vol. 3 does happen, Thurman predicts that it will be different from what fans expect. "We've discussed it over the years. I'm so crazy about the original work he's come up with over time. He would apply the same discipline of originality to a trilogy of Kill Bill, but I don't know if he's the type of person to retrace his steps. At least it would be very fresh if he approached it, it would be something wild.” Considering the number of wacky fan theories out there—from Bill still being alive, a challenge, after actor David Carradine's 2009 passing, to the film switching over to the Pulp Fiction universe—Tarantino has his work cut out for him in surprising them.

What we also know is that Tarantino is concerned, above all, with his legacy. "I'm really well versed on a lot of directors' careers, you know, and when you look at those last five films when they were past it, when they were too old, and they're really out of touch with the times," he says in a THR roundtable. "To me, it's all about my filmography, and I want to go out with a terrific filmography. Death Proof (2007) has got to be the worst movie I ever make… I do think one of those out-of-touch, old, limp, flaccid-dick movies costs you three good movies as far as your rating is concerned. It's a grade-point average. I think I risk failure every single time with the movies I do, and I haven't fallen into failure. Risking failure is not what I'm afraid of. Failing is what I'm afraid of."

With such a loaded franchise as Kill Bill, perhaps fear, inertia, or just not being the same director he was in 2003 will keep Tarantino from making a third installment. And, given that he's said he wants to stop making movies by the time he turns 60, he certainly doesn't have a whole lot of time.