Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman at the Fortnite premiere of 'The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge' at Vista Theater in Hollywood. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Epic Games)
Quentin Tarantino, the film purist who won't touch digital, just directed an eight-minute animated short that premiered in Fortnite, the massively popular gaming platform.
The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge resurrects a never-filmed Kill Bill sequence that Tarantino cut for being "too crazy, too violent, and just too much action." Using motion capture and Epic Games' Unreal Engine, Uma Thurman reprised her role as The Bride for a project that'll also screen theatrically with Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair on Friday. But Tarantino's not alone in treating gaming platforms as legitimate storytelling venues:
- Paul Thomas Anderson specifically requested Warner Bros. create a Fortnite extension for One Battle After Another, a political awards contender, not exactly typical gaming fare.
- Disney turned Fortnite's entire map into Springfield for a month-long The Simpsons takeover, letting players explore the town and play as characters from the show. The integration drew 2.7M concurrent players and the tie-in shorts hit #1 on Disney+.
- 12 of 2025's top 20 highest-grossing films activated on Fortnite or Roblox, including Wicked and Sinners.
Why it's happening:Â 83% of Gen Alpha and 78% of Gen Z game at least an hour weekly, making these platforms arguably larger storytelling hubs than most streaming services. Studios are responding by dedicating $50K-$1M and 8-12 weeks of production time per campaign to create custom Fortnite and Roblox content. These gaming activations are quickly becoming standard line items in Hollywood marketing budgets.
