Filmmaker Rian Johnson’s comedic murder mystery “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” isn’t even out on Netflix yet (December 23), but it’s already one of the most talked about films of the late 2022 season thanks to film critics raving over it and a one-week theatrical release that the streaming service gave the film in November.
READ MORE: Knives Out’: Rian Johnson Confirms Daniel Craig’s Character Is Queer
And many have raved about how prophetic and timely it is, even though it was written two years ago, centering on a narcissistic, ego-centric tech billionaire and his various out-of-touch whims—the film centers on tech billionaire (Edward Norton) who sends all his close friends and ally to his private island, inviting along super detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to solve the mystery of the tech bro’s “death.” But that’s just the surface intrigue, below is a tale of complicity, lies, betrayal, and revenge (read our review).
What’s next for Johnson? Well, it’s not “Star Wars”—though he apparently hopes to get back to that trilogy one day— and it’s definitely the untitled “Knives Out 3.” In two recent podcasts, Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast and John August’s Scriptnotes podcast, Johnson spoke about the third ���Knives Out” installment.
Johnson already confirmed to us that the third “Knives Out” movie is next, but Johnson reiterated that on both podcasts, confirming he is starting to write it—or at least meditate on ideas for it—now.
In talking to Maron, Johnson suggested making each one different and unique is the whole drive and largely the only reason he wanted to make three of them—the opportunity just to keep challenging himself.
“When we did the first one, the idea of doing more of them was only interesting to me if it can be completely different each time,” Johnson explained. “I want the audience to have a different experience each time, but more than that, just selfishly, I know I need a new challenge with them.”
On Twitter, I’d jokingly pitched a “Knives Out 3,” with the cast of Johnson’s somewhat controversial “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” cast, if only to f*ck with fans who hated that movie, also suggesting it should be set in space and on a moon base (and to be fair a lot of people made that joke).
And Johnson seems to be at least listening to the fans (lol). Asked what he’s doing next by Maron, Johnson said, “I’m doing at least one more with Netflix.”
Are you going to place this one underwater? Maron asked.
“Well, no, I gonna take the franchise to space, it’s time,” he cackled with laughter. “No, it’s time, why not. It’s time to take it to space! It’s a moon mystery!”
What’s funny is that Johnson seems to be running with this entertaining idea. On the Scriptnotes podcast, Johnson, John August, and co-host Craig Mazin talked about ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that’s been thrilling and terrifying screenwriters, to assess how worried they should be for the future of the profession.
During the conversation, Johnson said he was definitely thinking about “Knives Out 3” where the story could go, and when they fed a model into the AI, Johnson gave the premise of a third “Knives Out” movie set in space on a moon base.
“Let’s see what happens if we took the franchise to space with the next one,” Johnson said. “Let’s say Benoit Blanc is taken to a moon base.”
The results when fed into the AI? Pretty generic and boring, Blanc has to solve a mystery set on a moon base and trying to feed it more details unsurprisingly doesn’t make the AI results any less broad.
That said, three times is the charm, and then it sticks, right? I think we all know where this is headed. Rian Johnson doing the right thing with “Knives Out 3.” “Glass Onion” debuts on Netflix on December 23. Watch it so Johnson can get the budget for his ambitious space-set third film. 😉