It Sounds Like We Really Missed Out On This Scrapped Django Unchained Sequel
Back in 2014, the infamous Sony email hack revealed plans for a "Django Unchained" sequel that could have crossed over with the iconic "Zorro" franchise (via Business Insider). The movie would have been Quentin Tarantino's tenth and final film before his supposed retirement, with the legendary director even going so far as to pen a script with comedian Jerrod Carmichael, according to Collider. However, for a long time, nobody knew anything else about it other than what had inspired the "Django/Zorro" crossover — Dynamite's 2012 comic by Tarantino and Matt Wagner of the same name, which is a "Django Unchained" follow-up that many fans may not know about.
"I bumped into [Jamie Foxx] ... and he thought it was a fantastic idea," explained Tarantino in a July 2014 interview with The Guardian, in reference to the possible film. "He was like, 'Can we make a movie of this? I'm their man. Let's get Antonio [Banderas]. Let's do this." Speaking to USA Today in a June 2022 interview, Banderas revealed that Tarantino approached him about the project, saying: "He talked to me, I think on the Oscar night (in 2020) when I was nominated for 'Pain and Glory.' ... He just came up to me and I was like, 'In your hands? Yeah, man!'"
Now, Carmichael has divulged information on what the script and movie would have been like in an interview of his own.
The Django Unchained and Zorro crossover could have been a $500 million film
According to Jerrod Carmichael, the "Django/Zorro" movie that he and Quentin Tarantino wrote could have been a massive box-office success — to the tune of half a billion dollars. "It's actually an incredible, incredible script," he revealed to GQ magazine in a June 2022 interview. "I realize the impossibility of it. But I still think we wrote a $500 million film."
Antonio Banderas, who played Zorro in 1998's "The Mask of Zorro" and 2005's "The Legend of Zorro," told USA Today that he thought the idea Tarantino had for the "Django/Zorro" crossover was epic. Apparently, his Alejandro Murrieta, aka Zorro, character would have been older and accompanying Jamie Foxx's Django Freeman on his adventures as a bounty hunter. In the comics, the duo discovers a group of indigenous people and fights to save them from what Dynamite describes as "brutal servitude."
"It would be fantastic and funny and crazy," Banderas said. "It would be great because of [Tarantino], because of Jamie Foxx and because of (playing) Zorro again when he's a little bit older." Sadly, the "Django/Zorro" film got scrapped, and it's ultimately unclear why. "Quentin's a lunatic who I love, and I'm happy that I got to spend the time," Carmichael told GQ, adding, "I would love for Sony to figure [the movie] out."