Why did Quentin Tarantino split Kill Bill into two movies? Details revealed

Quentin Tarantino's last film with Miramax, Kill Bill, which was released in two volumes in 2003 and 2004, is now getting rereleased as Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. It is currently set for release on December 5, 2025, and will be a four-hour feature minus Vol. 1's cliffhanger and Vol. 2's recap, plus a seven-minute new animated sequence.

The film had to be split because it was too lengthy. Variety reported in 2003 that, according to some sources close to production, splitting the film was initially started as a joke, but Tarantino and the film's co-producer, Harvey Weinstein, were enticed by it. Harvey had a reputation for urging filmmakers to cut short their films, so that explains it.

Quentin Tarantino told IGN in a 2004 interview about this that,

"When Harvey brought up the idea of splitting it up in half, I really kind of jumped to it and the reason I jumped to it is because, look, conceivably, and other movies have done it and they've succeeded at doing this, is I could have maybe, maybe cut this down to the bone and made it more compact and it wouldn't have been just Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 put together. It wouldn't have been a four-hour movie."

Both films were critical and commercial successes and made $333 million at the global box office collectively (Kill Bill: Volume 1 made $150 million and the sequel made $183 million).

What would have happened if Kill Bill had been released as a single movie back in the day?

Uma Thurman plays the Bride in Kill Bill. (Image via Miramax)

In the same interview with IGN, Quentin Tarantino also shared what would have happened if they had released the film as a single movie only. He mentioned several scenes would've been lost in such a cut. He told the publication that,

"The Esteban Vallejo scene wouldn't be in the movie. If you're trying to tell your story in three hours or so, you don't need that scene. I think that's one of the most mesmerizing scenes in the movie. The anime scene that everyone likes, whoop!, it would have been just enough to get the point across. If I had to lose anything it would have been that."

He also mentioned a few more scenes that might not have made it into the film, including the Pei Mai scene.

What did Quentin Tarantino say about the latest release?

Lucy Liu is one of the antagonists in Kill Bill. Vol.1. (Image via Miramax)

The director was happy about this new release and thinks that this is the best way to see the entire story. Regarding that, he says,

"I wrote and directed it as one movie — and I’m so glad to give the fans the chance to see it as one movie. The best way to see Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is at a movie theater in Glorious 70mm or 35mm. Blood and guts on a big screen in all its glory!"

Kill Bill's story follows Uma Thurman in the lead as the Bride, aka Black Mamba, aka "the deadliest woman in the world," who is hell-bent on taking revenge on this group of assassins called the Deadly Vipers Assassination Squad.