Although Kill Bill 2 ended Elle Driver’s arc on an uncertain note, Quentin Tarantino has provided some concrete answers about her fate in the franchise. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 are no ordinary tales of revenge. Instead, they are meditations on the consequences of one’s life choices and how one seemingly trivial event can set off a cycle of never-ending violence. Throughout its runtime, the Kill Bill franchise features several stylized action scenes that walk through Beatrix Kiddo’s journey of seeking revenge from the titular Bill and his Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.
While every action scene has its own unique appeal, the one that keeps a viewer white-knuckled is the showdown between Uma Thurman’s The Bride and Daryl Hannah’s Elle Driver. After appearing to be an even match-up for several tense minutes, the fight ends violently, with The Bride snatching Elle Driver’s remaining eye out, leaving her blindly squirming on the floor. This scene confirms that The Bride crushed Driver’s spirit by brutally defeating her but still leaves her fate uncertain. Fortunately, Tarantino has confirmed what might have happened to her.
Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill 3 Plans Confirm Elle Driver Did Not Die
While discussing his potential plans for a speculative Kill Bill 3, Quentin Tarantino explained how the film could be about revisiting the characters after 20 years, with the Bride and her daughter BB’s traumatic past catching up with them. He further expressed how exciting it would be to cast Uma Thurman as the Bride again, while casting her real daughter, Maya Hawke (of the Stranger Things fame), as BB. After highlighting his ideas for the film’s potential premise, Tarantino added (via The Ronin) that “Elle Driver is still out there,” hinting that despite her brutal defeat in Kill Bill 3, she somehow survived.
Given how Elle lost her remaining eye during her climactic showdown with Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill 2, Kill Bill 3 will have to feature her as a blind character. This would put Elle at a disadvantage unless she has been training for the past two decades to seek vengeance from the Bride. While she could still hire someone else to kill the Bride and her daughter to finally get the revenge she probably thinks she deserves, weaving her into Kill Bill 3‘s narrative would be complicated since Uma Thurman’s character clearly broke her spirit in Kill Bill 2‘s final battle.
Will We Ever Get To See Elle Driver’s Return In Kill Bill 3?
Since both Kill Bill: Volumes 1 and 2 were critical and commercial hits, it is understandable why audiences have been speculating about the franchise’s return with a third installment. Over the years, Quentin Tarantino, too, has teased his plans for a potential sequel, raising hopes that Beatrix Kiddo’s cycles of revenge were far from over in Kill Bill 2. Considering how Elle Driver and Vernita Green’s daughter, Nikkia Bell, were the only two survivors left behind in The Bride’s vengeful warpath against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad in the Kill Bill movies, it would narratively make sense for at least one of the two return in the sequel.
However, despite being an appealing threequel for the franchise, Kill Bill 3 will likely never happen, killing the prospect of Elle Driver’s return. The primary reason behind this is that although Quentin Tarantino has shown some interest in returning to the franchise and directing the third installment, he seemingly hasn’t made any progress with the movie’s storyboarding or production. In a recent interview, Quentin Tarantino also put a definitive closure to Kill Bill 3 by confirming that he does not see it happening. While another director could pick up Kill Bill 3 and feature Elle Driver’s return, the likelihood of that seems incredibly low.
Was Elle Driver’s Fate Better Left Ambiguous?
Kill Bill 2‘s ending credits feature a visual, where crossed off names of all the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. However, Elle Driver is the only member whose name is not crossed off and has a question mark beside it. With this scene, Kill Bill 2 confirmed that her fate was intentionally left ambiguous. This ambiguity somehow makes the franchise better because it allows its legacy to live forever through discussions and debates from audiences surrounding her fate. By leaving her fate shrouded in mystery, Kill Bill 2 also reinstates how violence only begets more violence, and the central cycle of revenge between The Bride and her enemies continues.
The ambiguity surrounding Elle’s fate also raises the possibility that she either died after the Bride pulled her eye out or spent the rest of her life regretting her decisions, which could arguably be far worse than her death. Tarantino’s confirmation that she is still out there somewhat kills the sense of intrigue that lingers in a viewer’s imagination and helps them believe that, even though Kill Bill 3 may never happen, Beatrix Kiddo may never be able to escape her past. An air of uncertainty around her fate would have also allowed audiences to be hopeful about Kill Bill 3 but not wholly expect it. Now that the Kill Bill 2 sequel is likely never happening after Tarantino’s confirmation, Driver’s fate was clearly better left ambiguous.
