How Django Unchained Is Connected To Shaft

Django Unchained's sequel and Zorro crossover never happened, but the Quentin Tarantino movie does have a connection to another major film franchise.

Quentin Tarantino often references old films in his movies, but he has overtly mentioned that Django Unchained is directly connected to Shaft. Tarantino's 2012 movie follows the formerly enslaved Django (Jamie Foxx) as he travels across the U.S. with a bounty hunter, Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz). After Django learns how to become an expert gunslinger, Dr. Schultz helps him save his wife, Broomhilda von Shaft (Kerry Washington), from her evil master, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Tarantino clearly envisioned a huge cinematic universe for the Western, as originally, The Hateful Eight was a Django Unchained sequel, and the filmmaker also wanted to make a Django and Zorro crossover movie, too. Remnants of a Django Unchained connection can still be found in The Hateful Eight, which is set a couple of years later, during the Civil War. Meanwhile, the Django/Zorro idea exists in the form of a comic book. However, as far as movie connections go, there is still something — a whole other existing film franchise that Tarantino has mentioned in relation to Django Unchained: Shaft​​​​​​.

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According to Deadline, Quentin Tarantino sees Django Unchained as a prequel to Shaft with the connecting tissue being Django's wife, Broomhilda von Shaft. The Candyland plantation house slave is an ancestor of the smooth-talking John Shaft, ironically played by blaxploitation actor Richard Roundtree. Tarantino even sang Shaft's theme song out loud during a Q&A. While Broomhilda is married to Django, it isn't completely clear if he's an ancestor of Shaft, too. Considering that Shaft has so much charisma and theatricality, he has a lot in common with the titular slave-turned-bounty-hunter. The other option is that Calvin Candie is Shaft's ancestor, which is a much more upsetting thought.

It's unsurprising that Tarantino is a big fan of the Shaft movie franchise, as it's full of action and violence, it has tons of pulpy detective narratives, and it's historically relevant too, as it marked a huge advancement for African-American movies. The series follows the titular private detective, and there have been three 1970s feature films, seven TV movies, and modern-day reboots including 2000's Shaft and 2019's Shaft, both of which feature frequent Tarantino collaborator and Django Unchained co-star Samuel L. Jackson. The thought of Shaft and Django Unchained being connected brings about the potential idea of a Tarantino-directed Shaft movie, which is unlikely but would totally revitalize the franchise.

While it's fun to imagine that Django Unchained and Shaft exist in the same universe (along with Zorro, too), it isn't an official connection, and the idea of it ever being canon is unfortunately implausible. It's a copyright infringement nightmare, as Tarantino doesn't own the rights to the Shaft franchise, and technically, he doesn't have any right to say that one of his characters is related to John Shaft whatsoever. Generally, fictional characters enter the public domain after they've existed for a hundred years, so there's a chance that a version of Shaft could one day exist in the Django Unchained universe, but that wouldn't be for around 50 years.

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Currently splitting his time between Madrid and Chicago, Stephen Barker has been a staff writer at Screen Rant since 2020. Since graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University with a bachelor's degree in Film, Television, and Cultural Studies in 2014, he has written for numerous movie and music websites. Visit Stephen's personal blog, Quaranste, where he writes about guilty pleasure movies, his latest musical discoveries, and how he stays creative during global pandemics.