“When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I’ll be waiting” are the parting words Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman) has for a young girl, Nikki (Ambrosia Kelley), after revenge-killing her mother, Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) inKill Bill Vol. 1. That was in 2003, and directorQuentin Tarantinohas been toying with a third entry to his two-part martial arts revenge epic pretty much ever since. As mentioned, Fox got herself knife-murdered right out of that hypothetical third film, but the actress does have an A+ suggestion for her grown-up, vengeance-seeking daughter:Spider-Man: Far from HomestarZendaya.
Here’s what Fox recently toldNME:
“I haven’t got any official word… I had a feeling that hopefully [Tarantino] was waiting on [the actress who plays] my daughter to grow up a little bit. But then I was doingan interviewand they asked ‘What young actress would you get to play your daughter?’ and I was like ‘No, Ambrosia [Kelley]!’ but they meant an established actress. ‘So I went, Zendaya!’. How hot would that be? And that would probably green light this project. Her and Uma are both very tall, and it would just be kick-butt, and I love her.”
The actress added: “Hopefully now we can put that out, like ‘Tarantino, cast Zendaya!’ And spark his interest to put it on the fast track."
Tarantino, who I fully believe has like 20 ready-to-go drafts ofKill Bill Vol. 3tucked away in a drawer somewhere, basically confirmed that the basic outline of a third film would involve an older Nikki hunting down Beatrix.
“The star will be Vernita Green’s daughter, Nikki,” Tarantino toldEWin 2004. “I’ve already got the whole mythology: Sofie Fatale [Julie Dreyfus] will get all of Bill’s money. She’ll raise Nikki, who’ll take on the Bride. Nikki deserves her revenge every bit as much as the Bride deserved hers.”
Since then, Tarantino has helmed four non-Kill Billfilms, including last year’s Oscar-nominatedOnce Upon a Time…in Hollywood. A thirdKill Billwould technically fulfill the director’s long-held promise of retirement after ten films, but he also counts both Kill Bill films as a single piece so the rules kind of don’t mean anything.
For more on what Zendaya is up to before she hypothetically hunts down Uma Thurman with a Samurai sword, here’s alook at the actress inDenis Villeneuve’sDune.
