The Movie Critic could've been Avengers: Endgame for the Tarantiverse

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Quentin Tarantino

Photo: Denis Makarenko

The Movie Critic, Quentin Tarantino's now-abandoned tenth and final film, is now relegated to the what-if portion of Tarantino's career. Like Double V Vega and Kill Bill Vol. 3, it is now another unproduced idea for the filmmaker's filing cabinet. However, the filing cabinet casket and the author aren't the only things these movies have in common. Per The Hollywood Reporter, The Movie Critic was the kind of crossover event film we're all sick of.

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Last week, The Movie Critic came to an abrupt end after Tarantino "simply changed his mind" on the project. Billed as the auteur's tenth and final film, Movie Critic slowly but surely became one of the most anticipated movies of 2025. Its cancellation came as a surprise to, well, everybody despite Tarantino doing this every so often. Still, the movie was expected to enter production later this year, but it doesn't sound like he ever settled on an idea.

The Movie Critic was reportedly set to reteam Tarantino and Brad Pitt, who previously won an Academy Award for playing a stuntman who is as real as a donut, and surprisingly, he was going to reprise the role. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the project "morphed" to include Cliff Booth. But that's not the only member of the Tarantinverse taking a portal from one movie to another. The director was "toying" with the idea of being a send-off to his cinematic universe, allowing characters from old movies to appear in this one. An idea was also to include a young Tarantino proxy via a 16-year-old usher at an adult movie theater. These cameos were set within "movie within a movie" situations or as the in-universe actors who play Tarantino's characters. Still, we can't help but imagine the opening-night applause when Honey Bunny and Pumpkin step through a portal into a screening of Rio Lobo only to get thrown out by young Tarantino. Now, that would be a tasty burger.

Unfortunately, that will never come to pass. Many rumors regarding the film, including speculation that Tom Cruise and former Tarantino stars John Travolta, Jamie Foxx, and Margot Robbie would appear, are now left to myth. We'll never know if Olivia Wilde was really going to play Pauline Kael or if David Krumholtz was actually going to play Pauline Kael. We'll never know who would have played Pauline Kael because the movie will never happen—unless Tarantino changes his mind again.