For a decade now, Quentin Tarantino has said that he’d retire after directing his 10th movie. The lauded filmmaker has stuck to his guns for 10 years, which is surprising considering that Tarantino is only 59, a wee infant compared to the geriatric geniuses who make films through their 70s, 80s, and 90s (Malick, Scorsese, Bunuel, Spielberg, Bergman, Kurosawa, the great Godard, and so on). Regardless, the Pulp Fiction director seems adamant that 10 is the magic number.

“I kind of feel this is the time for the third act [of my life] to just lean a little bit more into the literary, which would be good as a new father, as a new husband,” Tarantino told Peter Travers in a Rolling Stone YouTube video. “I wouldn’t be grabbing my family and yanking them to Germany or Sri Lanka or wherever the next story takes place. I can be a little bit more of a homebody, and become a little bit more of a man of letters […] I do feel that directing is a young man’s game. I do feel that cinema is changing, and I’m a little bit part of the old guard.”

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Just as there have been countless canceled Tarantino movie ideas, there’s a plethora of suggestions and considerations for his final film, “an epilogue, as you’re wrapping up the career,” as he told Joe Rogan. Perhaps the perfect epilogue would be a follow-up to the only two-parter Tarantino has made, a film which could look back on his three decades of directing and provide a fitting conclusion — Kill Bill Vol. 3. This may very well be that 10th and final film, as the idea has crossed Tarantino’s mind quite a lot over the past 15 years. Here’s a comprehensive look at what the filmmaker has said about Kill Bill Vol. 3 over the years, in what seems like a long and fortuitous road to the conclusion of his directorial career.

Kill Bill 3 Was Considered After the First Two Volumes

     Miramax 

Kill Bill follows The Bride’s murky quest for revenge after her former associates (a group of skilled assassins) attempt to kill her during her wedding. She stands at the altar, pregnant in her bridal gown, and the building gets mowed down by gunfire, giving a sick new meaning to the term ‘shotgun wedding.’ After waking from a coma, she embarks on an international vendetta, and the two films chronicle the ways in which she crosses off her hit list.

Even while making the original volumes of Kill Bill, Tarantino had envisaged something larger. As he told Entertainment Weekly back in 2004:

It’s unclear whether Tarantino did in fact shoot scenes while the actresses were younger, but this early conceptualization of the continuation of Kill Bill has remained a potential plot point for Tarantino for years.

Kill Bill Vol. 3 Had a Real Release Date

     Miramax

By 2009, Tarantino had already solidified his plans for the next film, and had a release year for Kill Bill 3 — 2014. Ironically, Tarantino shared that news while on a press tour for his incorrectly spelled but captivating film Inglourious Basterds, a film which he had actually intended to make after Jackie Brown, but which he postponed after developing the idea of Kill Bill with Uma Thurman.

Unfortunately, Kill Bill Vol. 3 got put on the back burner as Tarantino became single-mindedly focused on the Western genre. From 2011 through 2015, the filmmaker was busy working on and touring Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, the latter of which may be his most underrated film. Once he was done with that epic Western masterpiece, Kill Bill Vol. 3 reared its bloody head yet again.

Tarantino Ponders Kill Bill Vol. 3 in 2015

     Sony Pictures Releasing 

Giving an excellent interview to What the Flick!? (which you can see below), Tarantino described the potential film: “There definitely is a possibility […] Stop short of saying a probability. But there could be. For one reason in particular… Uma and I would have a really good time working together again. I put the character of Beatrix Kiddo through a lot and I wanted [Kiddo] to have this much time for peace. I wanted her to have some time with her daughter and not have to be in the genre machine.”

Later that same year, the filmmaker discussed the potential film in depth with Variety, calling it “his most visionary movie,” which lends support to the idea that Kill Bill Vol. 3 should be Tarantino’s final film:

Uma Thurman and Tarantino Flirt With Kill Bill

Of course, none of that happened. Tarantino was busy falling in love with and engaging Daniella Pick, and developing what would become Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, perhaps his most acclaimed film in quite some time. Throughout all that time, though, Thurman and Tarantino talked about it, and the filmmaker fed the curiosity of his fans.

In one instance, he said, “Me and Uma have talked about it recently, frankly, to tell you the truth. I have thought about it a little further. We were talking about it literally last week. If any of my movies were going to spring from my other movies, it would be a third Kill Bill.” Later in 2019, Tarantino said:

Vivica Fox, Zendaya, Maya Hawke, and Kill Bill Vol. 3

Tarantino’s regular audience weren’t the only ones musing about a third Kill Bill and petitioning Tarantino to finally go through with it. Kill Bill star Vivica A. Fox said:

Oh my gosh, I can’t wait. It rears its ugly head every couple of years. They’ll say, ‘So, Vivica, Kill Bill 3, they’re trying to make a sequel to all your movies,’ and I’m like, ‘I think they’re waiting for my daughter to grow up.’ And then you always hear that Quentin falls in and out of love with Hollywood. He’s like, ‘I’m done, I’m back, I’m done.’ (Laughs.) So, the latest I’ve heard is that him and Uma have been talking, and I’d love for them to figure it out. Quentin is great with flashbacks and figuring out some kind of way to make his characters alive again in a film. So, I’m really hoping that Vernita Green gets her revenge.

Meanwhile, Euphoria star Zendaya was cast in Kill Bill Vol. 3, or at least the imaginary Kill Bill film that fans wanted, but she tampered that expectation as “just an idea.” Instead, Tarantino was very excited about casting Maya Hawke in Kill Bill, explaining why he loved the idea: “I think it’s just revisiting the characters twenty years later and just imagining the Bride and her daughter, BB, having 20 years of peace, and then that peace is shattered. And not the Bride and BB are on the run and just the idea of being able to cast Uma [Thurman] and cast her daughter [Maya Hawke] in the thing would be [expletive] exciting.”

Which brings us to today, where there is still wild speculation about what Tarantino’s alleged final film will be. Whatever merit there is in having it be Kill Bill Vol. 3, it’s clear that there’s probably no other potential project that Tarantino has discussed as much and for as long as Kill Bill Vol. 3. As he once said at Comic-Con, “Never say never.”