Rumors of a third Kill Bill film have popped up consistently since Quentin Tarantino released the second half of the film in April 2004. He’s referred to it as his “Dollars trilogy,” brought its potential up unprompted in interviews, reiterated that Uma Thurman was down to reprise her role, and said he wanted both 10 years to pass between the movies and also 15 years. He’s presently busy with something vaguely about the Manson murders and, more generally, about the year 1969, which is very probably not a sequel to Kill Bill. But as the video above gets into, there’s a reasonable argument to be made that a third film could still be about someone killing Bill, as he may not’ve died in the original film after all.
The reasoning as to how that Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique didn’t kill the old bastard is a little circuitous, but the emotional logic of it—that Kiddo was no longer quite as ruthless a killer, had spared multiple people throughout the film when deserving, and also didn’t truly hate Bill—is solid. By faking his death, the Bride is allowed to feel some peace as she raises her daughter. But it’s the closing credits that provide the most compelling evidence, with a dramatic strike-through illustrating each character she killed, a massive question mark suggesting that Daryl Hannah’s character’s fate remained uncertain, and no strike-through at all for David Carradine’s name.
Carradine’s death in 2009 makes his appearance in a sequel impossible, but it’s an interesting wrinkle as to where Tarantino might take the plot of a sequel, assuming he ever gets around to making good on all of those rumors he keeps planting.