Since bursting onto the scene through his debut as a filmmaker with 1992's Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino has become one of the most recognizable directors in the world. With a deep well of knowledge of films from varying genres and different time frames, the director has seen massive critical and box office acclaim over the years having been nominated for eight Academy Awards and winning two for Best Original Screenplays (for Pulp Fiction and Once Upon a Time In Hollywood). Audiences all over the world know what to expect from a Tarantino movie, and the amount of time the director takes on each project (often years between films) raises the anticipation for each new entry in the director's filmography.
It appears though the director will be stepping away in the near future, as he has openly and repeatedly said his next, tenth film will be his final movie. While it is unclear what the final Tarantino movie will be, over the course of the director's storied career he has openly talked about planned ideas for films that never saw the light of day. The director has been attached to or mentioned movies he would like to make as many times as he has actually made them, and there remain a number of odd or surprising unrealized Tarantino projects that audiences will probably never get to see. These are some of the most interesting Tarantino films that the director never made.
The Vega Brothers/Double V Vega
One of the most high profile and talked about films that Tarantino never made, for years the director had pitched a film that would see Vincent Vega (John Travolta) from Pulp Fiction and Vic Vega aka Mr. Blonde (Michael Madison) in Reservoir Dogs together in one film titled titled The Vega Brothers and later Double V Vega. This last name connection established that the Tarantino films took place in the same universe, and in the years since that concept has only strengthened with other connections across the director's various films, like with Big Khaunna Burger and Red Apple Cigarettes.
Given that both characters die in their respective films, it would have to have been a prequel. Yet by 2007, when Death Proof was coming out, Tarantino considered the movie unlikely due to the actors' age. Now more time has passed, and while it is always possible Tarantino could employ the de-aging technology that Martin Scorsese used on The Irishman, the movie is one that remains unrealized and will likely always be.
Kill Bill Vol. 3
Since the release of Kill Bill, Tarantino has discussed the prospect of a third film over the years. The director has gone over various versions of what the film could be, often as a sequel that picks up with Nikki Bell, the four-year-old daughter of Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox) who saw the Bride kill her mother seeking revenge against the Bride. Another would have seen Uma Thurman reprise her role starring alongside her own daughter Maya Hawke as the grown-up B.B.
Tarantino always said he wanted there to be a 10-year gap between films to give the Bride and her daughter some semblance of peace, and while 10 years have indeed passed, it seems unlikely the film will happen. The director has always been on and off again with the prospect of a third movie, though it may be unlikely, even though over the years both Tarantino and Thurman have openly discussed the third film being a possibility, as recently as within the last year. With the director planning only one more film, it is unlikely he will want to do a sequel, but as he told San Diego Comic-Con recently, "Never say never."
Django/Zorro
Being a big comic book fan, it was fitting that Tarantino allowed the story of Django Unchained to continue in the world of comic books, and in 2015 Dynamite Entertainment published a sequel to the film that also acted as a crossover with the popular pulp hero Zorro. Tarantino seemed to gravitate towards the idea, and in June 2019 he brought on comedian Jerrod Carmichael to co-write a film adaptation of the crossover story.
However by December of that year, Tarantino appeared to have moved on to another smaller project, and while Django/Zorro remains unlikely to be helmed by Tarantino, it is possible the story could still see the light of day with Tarantino producing and another filmmaker coming on board. With Tarantino's latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, being produced by Sony Pictures and Sony's having created the most popular film version of Zorro with The Mask of Zorro, the Django/Zorro crossover film could see the Jamie Foxx and Antonio Banderas characters team up in a long-awaited sequel to both films.
Killer Crow
It is readily apparent Tarantino has rich worlds and characters he wants to explore, and many of his film ideas are spin-offs or continuations of those stories. One such idea was a spin-off film to Inglourious Basterds, titled Killer Crow. The film would have followed a group of Black soldiers in WW2, who were originally set to appear in a sequence in Inglourious Basterds. While they were cut from the film, Tarantino seemed to like the idea and intended the film to be the third part in his spiritual trilogy of historical, revisionist revenge films that started with Inglourious Basterds and continued with Django Unchained.
The film would have focused on the all-Black battalion, who has been wronged by the U.S. military and goes on a revenge quest against the white officers who screwed them over in the military, and while never confirmed it was rumored that the project would have seen the group cross paths with the Basterds. Tarantino never moved forward with the project as after Django Unchained, his planned sequel to that film morphed into The Hateful Eight and then was followed up with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. This remains one of the many Tarantino movies that may never be realized.
Various Different Genre Films
Tarantino is a connoisseur of film and has an appreciation for a variety of genres, which is fitting since he garnered his cinematic education from working in a video store; the list of movies Tarantino took from to make Kill Bill, for instance, is varied and lengthy. Over the years during various interviews promoting movies, the director has expressed interest in directing a family film and a Howard Hawkes style screwball romantic comedy.
He has also considered a 1930s style gangster film, a horror movie, and a sci-fi film yet none of these projects have even gotten any details on them except slight interest. The director had offered a role of a foul-mouthed monarch to Helen Mirren for a planned medieval film. He considered a movie akin to the disaster movies of the 70s like Airport, The Towering Inferno, and The Posideon Adventures, which he jokingly called Airport 2005. While no further details about these films exist, they remain interesting possibilities of what genres the director could have played with.
Luke Cage
Tarantino has often spoken about his love for comic book superheroes, from a Silver Surfer poster in Reservoir Dogs to the Superman monologue in Kill Bill Vol. 2. Shortly after the release of Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino approached producer Ed Pressman to direct a film version of Luke Cage. Tarantino had considered Laurence Fishburn for the lead role, although one of his comic book friends told him Wesley Snipes would be a better fit for the character. The director wanted to make a movie homage to great Blaxploitation classics, the same genre that inspired the original Luke Cage Marvel Comics.
This was at a time when the only major superhero franchise was Batman and the Marvel adaptations were the critically maligned Howard the Duck, Dolph Lundgren's The Punisher, and 1990 Captain America film that never was released theatrically in the United States so that may have contributed to the movie never happening. Tarantino eventually moved on to direct Pulp Fiction and would make his own Blaxploitation film with Jackie Brown. Meanwhile, Laurence Fishburn would go on to play a number of various comic book characters like Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Perry White in Man of Steel, and Bill Foster in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Luke Cage would eventually be brought to life in a streaming series in 2016 with Mike Colter in the lead role.
Star Trek Movie
One of the most recent and high-profile almost-movies from Tarantino was a pitch he had for a Star Trek movie. The road to making Star Trek 4 has been a long one, with a variety of different creative approaches considered over the years since the release of Star Trek: Beyond. Tarantino is a noted fan of the franchise, and had openly talked positively about J.J Abrams's 2009 Star Trek reboot, and pitched a Star Trek idea in 2017. The studio seemed to be keen on the idea and assembled a writer's room to flesh out the story with the plan for Tarantino to direct and J.J Abrams to produce.
While not much is known about the planned film, it was reported that the film would involve time travel and feature Kirk's crew in a 1930's gangster-type story that would be R-rated and would be a stand-alone adventure. Tarantino left the project in 2019 to work on a smaller film, one that will likely be his last one, but said the movie still could be made, just without him directing. While Paramount eventually moved in a new direction for Star Trek 4, the script remains and could be revisited in the future as a possible fifth film.