In one of the most powerful moments of Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, the title character strides across a plantation to face down Big John Brittle, one of the notorious Brittle Brothers. In a shot-reverse-shot, we watch as Django pulls out his pistol and fires at the disbelieving Big John, killing him. In the type of pulpy action movie kiss off that Tarantino adores, Django sends his adversary off to the afterlife by declaring, “I like the way you die, boy.”
Django, of course, does not die. But he hasn’t exactly lived on either, except on the comic book page. In 2013, DC Comics released an adaptation of the film, followed by a 2015 series from Dynamite Comics that saw Django team up with his pulp hero predecessor Zorro. Now, in a delicious reversal, that comic is leading the way to a new movie, one that might see both Jamie Foxx and, more surprisingly, Antonio Banderas reprise two of their most important roles.
Thus far, Foxx has only played Django once, in the 2012 Tarantino movie, after taking up a role originally offered to Will Smith. Like Inglourious Basterds before it and Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood afterwards, Django Unchained rewrites history via cinematic tropes, using Spaghetti Westerns to imagine Django’s quest for revenge against his enslaver. The film is pure Tarantino, from the good (poetic cinematography applied to grindhouse plots), the bad (Tarantino’s acting as a particularly dumb Aussie), and the deeply uncomfortable (excessive use of racial slurs). Even amid some incredible performances from Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Christoph Waltz (who took home his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar), Foxx holds the screen as the raging, but undeniably cool, Django.
Banderas has worn the costume of Zorro twice, first in the excellent 1998 actioner The Mask of Zorro and again in its substandard 2005 sequel The Legend of Zorro, both of which were directed by Martin Campbell. The two Zorro films play as legacy films, with Anthony Hopkins portraying Don Diego de la Vega, the original Zorro, and Banderas as Alejandro Murrieta. After spending 20 years in prison, Don Diego escapes upon learning that his daughter Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) still lives, and begins training Alejandro as his successor. As Zorro, Alejandro woos Elena and defeats his enemies, delivering justice before Don Diego dies.
Even if The Legend of Zorro disappoints, affection for The Mask of Zorro remains strong, especially the chemistry between Banderas and Zeta-Jones. And perhaps inspired by the impending return of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, stars of another late ’90s genre fave, The Mummy, many are hoping they’ll be back on screen again.
One would think that Django/Zorro provides the perfect excuse for a reunion. Co-written by Tarantino and Matt Wagner, who wrote the Zorro comic for Dynamite, and illustrated by Esteve Polls, Django/Zorro takes place shortly after the events of Django Unchained, and finds the bounty hunter working alongside Zorro after the Mexican hero hires Django as a bodyguard for his famous alter-ego. The series perfectly blends the two characters and their mythos, resulting in an adventure that’s sometimes dashing and sometimes brutal, all pure pulp pleasure.
There’s only one problem: the Zorro in this story is not Alejandro Murrieta, but rather Don Diego de la Vega, the character played by Hopkins. No, it’s not a big problem, and certainly a writer like Brian Helgeland, who also penned awards-winners LA Confidential and Mystic River, can figure out a way to happen.
Moreover, we’re willing to suspend disbelief a bit if that’s how we get Foxx back with his six-shooters and Banderas back with his whip. After all, these stories are pulp fantasy through and through, the types of stories where the hero gets to say something like, “I like the way you die.”
