As Collider reported, “Django in White Hell” wouldn’t be a movie exactly. It would be a Django paperback written by Quentin Tarantino, in line with the novelization he would one day write for his 2019 film “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.” As a writer over everything else, Tarantino has always talked up the opportunity to author novels and books of film criticism — this would have been his first foray. It’s easy to imagine Django in the shoes of Marquis Warren. All that would need changed is some of the more vile backstory of the character, and a bit more heroism from him.
Of course, “The Hateful Eight” required something hateful. As Tarantino said, “you shouldn’t have a moral center when it comes to these eight characters,” and Django would have corrupted that view. Subtracting Django and adding Warren clarified what the movie could be for Tarantino, but that didn’t mean Django would be ignored. Instead, Tarantino found another continuation for the story of his new pulp hero: a partner with Zorro.
Zorro was of course a legendary hero, having been created nearly a century before Django and standing in as a hero of Spanish California. According to The Guardian, it was in reading writer Matt Wagner’s run of “Zorro” comics that Tarantino realized Django could be translated to that medium, which led to the birth of “Django/Zorro,” a seven-issue run of comics. As a follow-up to “Django Unchained,” it’s a little lacking, with Tarantino’s fairly limited involvement becoming clear early on. But for anybody who fell in love with the character, it’s a sensible successor, one that makes it clear that Tarantino’s desire to turn Django into a pulp hero wasn’t misplaced.
