‘The Hateful Eight’ Was Originally Written as a ‘Django Unchained’ Sequel
There are some similarities between The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained besides just being Quentin Tarantino movies. They’re both westerns set in the Civil War era with a black male lead. They both star Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins and Bruce Dern, among others. But in addition to those similarities, there was initially going to be one major connection: Django himself. Tarantino recently revealed that The Hateful Eight originally started as a Django Unchained sequel with Django taking the place of Samuel L. Jackson’s Major Marquis Warren.
Tarantino spoke on the DP/30 video podcast and revealed that his initial plans following Django Unchained was to write a sequel, and that sequel eventually evolved into The Hateful Eight.
I hadn’t written a novel before and I thought I would just try my hand at writing a Django paperback. At the time it was called Django In White Hell. Instead of Major Warren, it was Django.
Django In White Hell. I don’t know what the rest of that novel would’ve read like, but that’s one hell of a title. So, what happened? How did we go from Django In White Hell to The Hateful Eight? Let Tarantino explain:
A certain point I realized, Well, you know what’s wrong with this piece? It’s Django. He needs to go. Because you shouldn’t have a moral center when it comes to these eight characters.
Which, when you see the film, you’ll understand. It’s called The Hateful Eight for a reason. These characters are, all in their own way, pretty nasty people. Django’s a hero and there are no heroes in The Hateful Eight.
Whether Django ever returns in any future adventures, or whether Tarantino continues his dream of writing a pulp-y paperback novel, remains to be seen, but let’s just say, I really hope so.