Quentin Tarantino has brought a variety of characters of which many have become part of pop culture, and while some of his stories have the potential to expand, he has never made sequels to his movies (and Kill Bill: Volume 2 doesn’t count) – but why? Tarantino has earned the respect of viewers and critics thanks to his signature filmmaking style, mostly known for its big doses of violence, blood, and swearing, but also for its dialogues and narrative structure. Tarantino’s projects are always surrounded by anticipation, and viewers have come to expect new stories rather than sequels, of which Tarantino has done none.
Quentin Tarantino’s career as a filmmaker began in 1992 with the crime movie Reservoir Dogs, and while it was a success with critics and has become a classic of independent film, his big break arrived two years later with Pulp Fiction. Since then, Tarantino has brought a bit of everything in his movies – from martial arts with Kill Bill to slasher with Death Proof and even alternate versions of historical events with Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – and most of his stories have been original ones, yet none of them has been granted a sequel, and Kill Bill: Volume 2 doesn't count as both movies are counted as one.
Tarantino has famously said he will only make 10 movies and then he will retire, but he has a special way of counting his works. Technically, Tarantino has already fulfilled this promise with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but he counts Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Volume 2 as one movie, so there’s still one more Tarantino movie to go (if he doesn’t change his mind, of course). Among the possible projects for Tarantino’s tenth and final movie is Kill Bill 3, which could become the “first” sequel in his career, but every time he tries to move forward with a sequel to one of his projects, something else comes up or gets in the way, adding more titles to his already long list of unmade projects.
The lack of sequels in Tarantino’s career hasn’t been addressed by him, so there isn’t an exact reason why he hasn’t made continuations to some of his biggest movies, but he has come close to making some at different points. When the Grindhouse project was released in 2007, Tarantino shared his plans for a sequel, and his segment would have been an “old-school Kung Fu movie”, but the project never took off. Another one was Killer Crow, which would have been the third entry in Tarantino’s Basterds/Django trilogy, following “a bunch of black troops” who were wronged by the American military and were ready for revenge. Speaking of Django, he almost got a crossover continuation titled Django/Zorro, but like many other projects, it has been mostly forgotten now.
Tarantino’s planned sequels haven’t happened for different reasons: conflicting schedules with the main cast (one of many reasons why Kill Bill 3 has been delayed), him not working further on the story, or simply, him deciding to focus on other projects. It’s worth noting, however, that one sequel ended up becoming a completely separate story: The Hateful Eight, which originated as a sequel to Django Unchained. Whether Quentin Tarantino’s final movie will be a sequel or not is unclear, but there’s still some hope for Kill Bill 3 finally happening, though it might count as part of the package with the previous two movies.