How Epic Games and Third Floor Creatives Pulled Off Fortnites Quentin Tarantino Collaboration
When Quentin Tarantino and Epic Games settled on a collaboration for the next installment of Fortnite based on a sequence from Kill Bill that the iconic filmmaker never put before cameras, he didn’t hand over his pages, cash a check and walk away. Tarantino stayed tuned in during the creative process as The Lost Chapter:…
When Quentin Tarantino and Epic Games settled on a collaboration for the next installment of Fortnite based on a sequence from Kill Bill that the iconic filmmaker never put before cameras, he didn’t hand over his pages, cash a check and walk away. Tarantino stayed tuned in during the creative process as The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge came together — powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and Third Floor —and even threw his body on the floor to help get it right.
“He gave notes while acting it out. He was even crawling on the floor at times, telling us, ‘It’s like this.’ He was totally in it,” explained Third Floor’s chief creative officer Josh Wassung. “That was really inspiring, and the notes were really fun. It was an exciting moment for the entire team to rally around”
What a rally it was. Yuki’s Revenge debuted on Fortnite Nov. 30, and finds Tarantino back together with Kill Bill star Uma Thurman for the unique partnership. Yuki’s Revenge, directed by Tarantino, follows its title character, the twin sister of Gogo Yubari, as she hunts down Thurman’s The Bride to avenge her sister’s death. Gogo, the bodyguard of Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii, was assassinated along with the Crazy 88 and O-Ren in a series of blood-soaked sequences from Volume 1.
The project was first unveiled during a special Fortnite Now Playing event held at Tarantino’s Vista Theater in Los Angeles on Nov. 19. Following the presentation, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Epic Games chief technology officer Kim Libreri, Epic Games visual effects supervisor Pat Tubach and Third Floor’s Wassung for a joint interview about how it all came together.
After Quentin confirmed he had a script to use for this collaboration, what happened next?
LIBRERI Well, the kick-off of it right at the beginning came when we landed on doing a California-themed season for the next launch. The design team said, “We’d love to do something with a triple-A director and we’d love for it to be Quentin Tarantino.” I said, “Come on, guys, that’s going to be pretty hard.” But we ended up meeting at his agency and we showed him what Fortnite is all about. And we showed him Fortnite Battle Royale, and Battle Royale is one of his favorite movies. He got it instantly. We talked about what would be cool [in terms of a collaboration], and he had this lost chapter that never got made. That’s how the whole thing got rolling. Then we got Pat and Third Floor involved, and they actually made the thing. It combined the efforts of these two companies.
What is the process to pull it together?
WASSUNG Blazing fast. That was thanks to working so closely with Pat’s team, Kim’s team and my team at Third Floor. We all meshed together. We’re all in the same ecosystem with Unreal Engine. We did the whole thing in five or five and a half months.
How fast is that compared to a typical creative process?
LIBRERI A normal animation studios project takes five years from concept to delivery. The script was already written when he gave it to us. He made a few tweaks specifically for us but it was pretty much there. The way he writes is so descriptive that every shot, every split screen is in there. We were lucky that we weren’t in the dark trying to figure out what this thing was. It was much faster than any normal process but part of the reason we were able to pull it off is because we have an awesome team. We have Unreal Engine, and we put out a new chapter every few months. Fortnite is a seasonal thing so we’re always having to crank.
TUBACH We set a really high bar for ourselves in terms of the authenticity of all of this, with the performances. We did motion capture with the actors in order to get the authentic body motion in there. Then we did voiceover and facial capture to bring it all together with the performances. What you see is Uma authentically acting out every scene and facial moment. We set this bar that makes it more complicated but at the same time, much easier because you know you’re getting the real performances from the actors.
What was the most challenging scene to nail?
TUBACH The scene in the parking lot where [Yuki and The Bride] face off. There’s a lot of subtle dialogue and the tension needs to be there because you have to believe what they’re saying to one another.
WASSUNG Those are long takes. Animation is often very quick but we have to go with Quentin’s style and so you sit there and watch Yuki and you can see the facial expressions, hold on the breaths, draw it out. It’s very authentic to honoring Quentin’s work and his original film.
LIBRERI We have an amazing technology in Unreal Engine called Metahuman Animator, which extracts the animation from the performance of the actor. There are tiny tweaks here and there but it’s very authentic to what they act out. It’s not the traditional key frame animator who goes in to rework the animation. We didn’t have time for that anyway, quite frankly.
How involved was Quentin in the creative process?
TUBACH We gave him storyboards and broke down every scene, which he really liked. He liked seeing his words translated into a visual shot list. That’s when I think he knew that we understood what he was saying, that we could translate it into visuals. From there, it was just about leveling up the animation and trying to make sure that we got the right tone, the right nuance, and that we nailed the character performances. One thing that he harped one was how he wanted Yuki to have the energy of a shaken can of soda. At first, I don’t think we entirely got what he was saying and how energetic she needed to be during the whole scene. But we worked hard on it in order to achieve that.
WASSUNG After we showed the storyboards, we got into a layout phase as we translated the boards into something with cameras and whatnot. He reviewed it and we watched it with him. His energy was amazing. He gave notes while acting it out. He was even crawling on the floor at times, telling us, “It’s like this.” He was totally in it. That was really inspiring, and the notes were really fun. It was an exciting moment for the entire team to rally around.
Kim Libreri, Tarantino and Nate Nanzer at Fortnite Now Playing on Nov. 19, 2025.
