There's a lot more going on with Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained than would be obvious from the slew of trailers and clips we've seen previously. Beyond just the director's newfound love of filtering history through his own unique and stylish lens, he's drawing connections from the film that are interesting, to say the least. One was this summer's "reveal" where he stated that Kerry Washington's character, Broomhilda von Shaft, is a distant relative to the blaxploitation icon John Shaft from the 1971 film. Cool, no doubt, but we'll have to wait until we see the film in full to know if it has any significant impact on the story.
Recently, Tarantino has made a statement that indicates Django Unchained may have a connection to his previous film, Inglourious Basterds. More precisely, that the two may be part of a larger trilogy. Speaking with Total Film, he had this to say....
Tarantino: “I don’t know, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained bespeak a trilogy. As different as they are, there is a companion piece quality. There might very well be a third one. I just don’t know what it is yet.”
The two certainly share some thematic similarities, specifically that of an oppressed race's fight to gain some measure of revenge, but also in that they are both revisionist historical pieces. As for what Tarantino could be considering, he's mentioned doing a gangster film at some point, and if it's set in the Great Depression era that would give him a fresh underclass to have rise up to seek some justice. All just speculation on my part. It was years ago that Tarantino made mention of it and may be totally off the table now.
Whatever the case, you can bet it won't take long after Django Unchained for rumors to start emerging about what Tarantino will do next. Pleeeeease be Kill Bill 3!!!!
