What Happens Next To Leonardo DiCaprio’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Character

Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was one of 2019’s most celebrated movies, and it earned 10 Oscar nominations.

While we have to wait a little while longer to see if it wins any, Tarantino has now shared some interesting insight into one character from the movie in particular.

SPOILERS FOR ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD FOLLOW BELOW.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ends in dramatic fashion, with DiCaprio’s character, the ageing actor Rick Dalton, burning some of Charles Manson’s followers to a crisp with his flamethrower. He did this to help save his friend and stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).

The movie doesn’t make it clear what happens to Dalton in the aftermath of that fateful night, and now Tarantino has filled in some of those details.

He told The Wrap that Dalton’s career begins to rise again, thanks to the way in which he murdered the Manson followers.

“The whole incident with the flamethrower and the hippies got a lot of play,” Tarantino said. “No one quite knows what a big deal that was, but it was still a big deal. And it’s a big deal that he killed ‘em with the flamethrower, with the prop from one of his most popular movies. So he starts becoming in demand again.”

One of Dalton’s earlier movies, The 14 Fists of McCluskey, gets put back in rotation on TV, and Dalton gets offered studio movies, albeit lower-budget ones, Tarantino said.

In addition to his surging film popularity, Dalton enjoys a comeback on TV as well. “On the episodic-TV circuit, he’s a bigger name now. He’s not quite Darren McGavin, all right? Darren McGavin would get paid the highest you could get paid as a guest star back in that time. But Rick’s about where John Saxon was, maybe just a little bit higher. So he’s getting good money and doing the best shows. And the episodes are all built around him.”

Tarantino is clearly invested in and enthusiastic about the wider Once Upon a Time in Hollywood universe. So much so that he told Deadline that he plans to direct a spin-off TV show focused on Dalton’s character from the fictional TV show Bounty Law.