Quentin Tarantino has taken a break from filmmaking since the release of his Oscar-winning hit “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” in 2019. Since then, he has started occupying his time in other ways, including taking on the biggest acting role he has had in decades in “Only What We Carry.” He’s also dabbled in video games, of sorts, as he recently collaborated with the folks at Epic Games to bring characters from “Kill Bill” to “Fortnite.” Beyond just a few simple character skins, this allowed Tarantino to make something that lasted for over 20 years.
“Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” will hit theaters soon and will unite “Vol. 1” and “Vol. 2” into one giant movie, complete with some extra footage and an intermission. In honor of this, Tarantino produced a new animated short titled “The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge,” which is now available in “Fortnite” and brings to life a long-abandoned scene from his original storyline, with Uma Thurman even reprising her role as The Bride. You can watch a trailer for the short film below.
“I showed up to the meeting thinking that they would want to license the characters and they wanted to get my ideas on what could be a fun thing to do,” Tarantino said at the “Fortnite Now Playing” event (per The Hollywood Reporter). “But no, they had something else in mind.” That something else was the aforementioned short film. Tarantino continued:
“They asked me very innocently, ‘Do you have anything eight to 12 minutes long that might be useful for our purposes?’ Now, they didn’t ask, “Can you make sure your iconic characters are wrapped inside of this?” But it was implicit.”
“And they were like, ‘Let’s do this.’ And here we are,” concluded the filmmaker.
The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge completes the story of Kill Bill more than 20 years later
The short focuses on Yuki, the twin sister of Gogo Yubari, the bodyguard of Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii in “Kill Bill: Volume 1.” She hunts down The Bride to avenge the death of her sister, who was killed with the Crazy 88 in the first film. As for why the scene was cut from the original production?
“We couldn’t do it, it was just too crazy, it was just too much action,” Tarantino explained. So it ended up being cut from the script. But now it’s finally coming to life. Granted, the director probably didn’t originally imagine it with a giant talking banana, but “Fortnite” still helped fill that gap all these years later.
“Fortine” is an online battle royale game that has an impressive 650 million registered players worldwide, with over 1 million active players at any given time. Due to the popularity, it has become interesting for major films to collaborate in the game. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” even did one recently. It’s not just about “Star Wars” and “The Simpsons.”
“I think it’s a really good way to kick off the new season,” Tarantino added. “It’s a lost chapter that I always wanted to see the light of day.” Thurman was also in attendance and spoke about reprising her role, praising her collaborations with Tarantino over the years:
“I thought it was so cool. I mean, it’s such a new audience for film. We’ve had an incredible life in films together, some of the best imaginable. I challenge anyone to have more extraordinary experiences than I had with this man.”
“Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” will be released in theaters on December 5, 2025.
