A Surprising Sequel is Coming for Quentin Tarantino’s Controversial Western

Quentin Tarantino is still gearing up for his yet-to-be-announced 10th and final film, but he’s not going out quietly. Alongside writing the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood spinoff, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, which David Fincher is set to direct, he’s also making his debut as a playwright with The Popinjay Cavaliere early next year. Now, there’s news of another Tarantino film getting a spinoff.

The divisive 2012 spaghetti Western homage, Django Unchained, is set to return with a sequel titled Django/Zorro. In this film, the former slave-turned-bounty hunter, originally portrayed by Jamie Foxx, crosses paths with the iconic masked vigilante created by Johnston McCulley. While this pairing might seem unexpected, Django/Zorro was initially a 2014 comic book miniseries where, seven years after the events of the film, Django meets an aging Zorro. The two form a friendship, with Django taking on the role of Zorro’s bodyguard as they work together to liberate enslaved indigenous people in the American Southwest. In a twist, Django even wears Zorro’s mask during the series.

Tarantino collaborated with Matt Wagner, the creator of Grendel, to write the 2014 seven-issue series, illustrated by the late Spanish comic artist Esteve Polls. For the film adaptation, the script will be crafted by Academy Award-winning Mystic River screenwriter Brian Helgeland. It’s uncertain whether Tarantino will have any involvement, but reports indicate that he has given his approval for the project. It’s also unclear if Foxx will reprise his role as Django, though it’s hard to picture anyone else in that part.

The report mentions that instead of directly adapting the comic’s storyline, Helgeland is “scripting a new story that follows on from the comic series,” suggesting it will serve as a sequel to the comic.

This could be a peculiar choice, as not many are likely familiar with the comic, and Zorro was already quite aged in it. The comic concluded with Django stating he never saw Zorro again.

Ideally, it would be great to see them portrayed as contemporaries, which could allow for Antonio Banderas to don Zorro’s mask one more time, especially since he and Foxx are only seven years apart in age. This was reportedly Tarantino’s vision as well; Banderas shared that the director approached him at the Oscars in 2022 about reprising the role of Zorro alongside Foxx as Django. Banderas responded, “In your hands? Yeah, man!” However, it remains to be seen if Banderas would be interested in Django/Zorro under a different director, as the helm of the film has yet to be announced and it most certainly won’t be Tarantino.