Kill Bill 2 originally included a cameo by martial artist and actor Michael Jai White. Here’s what happened in the cut Quentin Tarantino scene. Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 2 originally included a role for martial artist Michael Jai White, but here’s why his role was cut from the final cut. Many parts of Tarantino’s plans for Kill Bill changed during the course of development and production. He notoriously planned to release Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 as one four-hour-plus movie, but it was later decided to split the movie in two. This allowed Tarantino to not have to worry too much about cutting out parts of the story to hit a more acceptable and shorter runtime.
A year after the first Kill Bill hit theaters, the story of the Bride (Uma Thurman) continued in 2004’s Kill Bill: Vol. 2.
The movie continues the Bride’s quest to get revenge on the remaining members of the Deadly Viper Association she didn’t kill in the first film and Bill (David Carradine). This includes flashbacks to the Bride’s time with Bill and her training with martial arts expert Pai Mei to learn his Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. These flashbacks originally included an additional fight scene for Bill and a cameo from Michael Jai White. It was known prior to Kill Bill: Vol. 2’s release that Michael Jai White was supposed to be involved in some capacity. Although his scene was eventually cut from the film, it was then released as a DVD extra deleted scene.
This showed White as a skilled but unnamed fighter who claimed Bill killed his master. White’s character challenges Bill to a fight and the two engage in hand-to-hand and sword combat almost immediately. He holds his own against Bill at the start, but the scene doesn’t end well for White’s character. Bill unsheathes his sword and slices White’s character across the neck, delivering a deadly blow. Parts of the scene can be found online today.
Since the decision to split Kill Bill into two movies was done to prevent Tarantino from needing to make too many cuts, the reason why Michael Jai White’s cameo was left on the cutting room floor is unknown.
Reports allegedly claimed that Tarantino had to cut it due to pacing, which is a surprising reason considering how short and action-packed it is. To make matters even stranger, this is the only real fight scene that Bill is part of throughout the story. His threat still looms large over the two films, but audiences might be even more scared of him after seeing this scene.
It is disappointing that Michael Jai White’s Kill Bill: Vol. 2 cameo was cut. He has practiced eight different forms of martial arts during his career: Shōtōkan, Goju-Ryu, Taekwondo, Kobudō, Tang Soo Do, Wushu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Kyokushin.
This scene gave him a chance to show off his martial arts mastery. As disappointed as some fans might be over the cut scene, Michael Jai White remains happy that he was even part of the production and got to work with Tarantino and Carradine. Perhaps if Kill Bill: Vol. 3 ever happens, Tarantino and White can join forces again to make him part of this world.