Tarantino Movie Would Do Justice to The MCU's Most Underrated Team
Well, first thing first, Quentin Tarantino stated that he does not want to direct a movie for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not that he's averse to pop culture, but, as he said: "You have to be a hired hand to do those things. I'm not a hired hand. I'm not looking for a job." (via LA Times)
So the rest of this article is pure speculation. But, hypothetically, if Quentin Tarantino ever changes his mind, is there a potential MCU project that he would be uniquely suited to direct? As a matter of fact, there is.
The comic book series Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, was a fairly long-running one, from 1963 to 1981, but remained relatively obscure.
It chronicled the adventures of Nick Fury before he became a spy, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and so on, as he commanded a fictional World War II unit tasked with hunting down the nascent HYDRA and destroying its bases.
The Howling Commandos were introduced to the MCU in Captain America: The First Avenger, and played a supporting role in that film. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan ) was a member of the unit before being recaptured by HYDRA. But they were forgotten after that movie. As Inglorious Basterds proves, Tarantino is no stranger to making less-than-realistic war movies, so if he's well suited to film the story of the Howling Commandos for the MCU.
Not only would he be able to save the team from oblivion, but he could also use the whole premise to make a graphically violent, gritty movie about regular grunts fighting the villainous organization that could push the boundaries of what is acceptable in the MCU while still taking the less realistic and more absurd elements of the MCU in stride.
Now, aside from Quentin's own disposition, there are some technical difficulties associated with telling this story. In the MCU, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson ) has nothing to do with the Howling Commandos and is far too young to have anything to do with them. (Nick Fury being a sergeant during World War II was obviously more plausible in the sixties!)
The only remaining character with any connection to them is Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier -- and we know that he leaves the unit by becoming a prisoner of HYDRA. And in the present, both Nick and Bucky are preoccupied with their own trajectories. But these are just solvable technical problems.
For example, you could easily set the story of a HYDRA-hunting unit at any point in the XX century where Fury is young enough.
Too bad that if such project is ever going to happen, it is not going to have Tarantino in charge.