Kill Bill Vol. 3 is not officially in development, but Quentin Tarantino has repeatedly teased—and then walked back—the long-awaited sequel over the past two decades. While Tarantino once said he planned to make a third Kill Bill film years later to follow The Bride’s daughter, recent comments about his retirement, stalled final-film plans, and Uma Thurman’s uncertainty suggest the project is currently dormant. As of 2026, Kill Bill Vol. 3 remains unannounced, unresolved, and caught between Tarantino’s shifting priorities and fan demand.
Is Kill Bill Vol. 3 Happening in 2026?
When Kill Bill Vol. 1 arrived in 2003, it felt like Quentin Tarantino uncorking every cinematic obsession he had been storing for decades. Samurai films, kung fu epics, spaghetti westerns, grindhouse aesthetics, anime interludes, and gallons of operatic violence all collided into one stylized revenge saga. Uma Thurman starred as The Bride, a former assassin left for dead on her wedding day who wakes from a coma with a list of names and a very sharp sword. Vol. 1 earned $180 million worldwide on a reported $30 million budget and was met with strong reviews, many of them praising Thurman’s physical commitment and Tarantino’s audacious structure.
Kill Bill Vol. 2, released in 2004, slowed things down without losing its edge. Less blood spray, more emotional reckoning. It leaned into western influences, explored Bill as a character rather than a shadow, and gave The Bride space to reckon with the cost of her vengeance. The sequel added another $152 million at the box office, bringing the combined global haul to more than $330 million. Critics were divided on which volume was stronger, though many agreed the two films worked best as a single epic. Awards attention followed, including a Golden Globe nomination for Thurman, and Kill Bill quickly settled into cult classic status.
Quentin Tarantino’s Original Plan for Kill Bill Vol. 3
Almost immediately after Vol. 2, fans began asking about a third chapter. Tarantino did not shut the idea down. In fact, he leaned into it. Speaking to The Guardian in 2009, the director openly discussed a long-term plan. “I want to do it,” he said at the time. “I just want to wait 10 years.” His reasoning was rooted in story rather than nostalgia. Tarantino explained that he wanted The Bride’s daughter, Bibi, to grow up so the emotional consequences of the earlier films could take center stage.
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Is Kill Bill Vol. 3 Happening in 2026?
That tease was enough to keep the conversation alive for more than a decade. In the meantime, Tarantino stayed busy making anything except Kill Bill Vol. 3. Inglourious Basterds arrived in 2009, followed by Django Unchained in 2012, The Hateful Eight in 2015, and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood in 2019. Each film reinforced his standing as one of the few directors whose name alone could still sell a movie. Each one also pushed Kill Bill Vol. 3 further into the distance.
Then, in 2021, Tarantino reopened the door. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he revealed that he had discussed the idea with Thurman again. “I wouldn’t do it without her,” he said. He also floated a new wrinkle that instantly set the internet on fire: casting Thurman alongside her daughter, Maya Hawke. “It would be kind of exciting,” Tarantino said, referring to Hawke, who had become a household name thanks to Stranger Things and her small role in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. For fans, it felt like the closest thing to real momentum the project had seen in years.
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Then came the retirement talk.
Around that same period, Tarantino began repeating a long-standing rule for himself: ten films, then he’s done. He framed directing as a young person’s game and positioned his tenth movie as a final statement. For a while, that film was The Movie Critic, a project he described in interviews as a 70s set period piece loosely inspired by his youth and love of cinema – sort of a spiritual sequel to Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. In 2023, he confirmed that it would be his last film, telling outlets that he wanted to exit on his own terms.
That decision seemed to close the door on Kill Bill Vol. 3 entirely. Tarantino addressed the topic directly in a 2023 interview reported by Deadline. “I don’t see that happening,” he said bluntly. “My last film is going to be my last film.” It was one of the clearest dismissals he had ever given the idea.
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Kill Bill Vol. 3
What Tarantino and Uma Thurman Have Said Recently
Thurman echoed that reality not long after. In an interview, the actress said Vol. 3 is highly unlikely.
"I can’t really tell you anything about it. I mean, it has been discussed over the years," she said. "There was real thought about it happening, but very long ago. I don’t see it as immediately on the horizon."
She added that while the director did talk to her about possibly revisiting ideas scrapped from the first two movies, she had not kept up with Tarantino’s plans for a while. Coming from the woman who carried the franchise on her shoulders, that statement landed heavily.
Still, Tarantino being Tarantino, certainty never lasts long. The Movie Critic stalled. In 2024 and 2025, reports surfaced that the project had been delayed, reworked, and possibly abandoned in its original form. Deadline reported in 2025 that Tarantino had pulled the plug on the film as previously conceived, once again leaving his “final film” status in flux. The director himself acknowledged that the movie was not moving forward the way he wanted.
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While Kill Bill Vol. 3 remains dormant, fans were given a consolation prize. In late 2025, Tarantino finally released Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair theatrically. The four-and-a-half-hour supercut stitched Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 together into a single experience, restoring footage previously unseen in U.S. theaters. It was not a sequel, though it felt like a reminder of what made the films endure in the first place.
So where does that leave Kill Bill Vol. 3? Officially, it sits somewhere between abandoned and indefinitely postponed. Tarantino has said no. Thurman is not in the loop. The director’s own rules about his career have bent enough times to keep fans guessing, though patience has worn thin.
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Kill Bill Vol. 3
Will Kill Bill Vol. 3 Ever Happen?
As things stand now, the chances of Kill Bill Vol. 3 happening are about as slim as The Bride’s katana blade. But Tarantino has changed his mind before, loudly and often. In a career built on reinvention, reversals have become part of the brand. And for a filmmaker who loves mythmaking almost as much as movies themselves, leaving one last legend unresolved may be exactly the point.
Never say never.
