“I’m a whodunit junkie,” Rian Johnson told Vanity Fair in October 2019, a month after “Knives Out” debuted to universal acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival and a month before it would open in theaters and become a box office sensation. “The idea of doing an original one about America in 2019 seemed really exciting: the combination of an incredibly fun genre that is a rollercoaster ride for the audience, kind of a puzzle box…and you have an all-star cast.”
“Knives Out” proved a rollercoaster for many moviegoers on its way to just over $310 million at the worldwide box office (a dazzling total for a film based on an original idea), and the film’s success gave Johnson the keys to something he eyed from the start: Turn “Knives Out” into an anthology series where Daniel Craig’s character, detective Benoit Blanc, investigates a new murder in each installment. Such a move would allow Johnson to cast a new ensemble with each film, and that already is paying off dramatically for the upcoming sequel “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”
With production on the “Knives Out” sequel now wrapped and the film set for a TIFF world premiere, check out the rundown below of all the major details fans know so far. IndieWire will update the list as new information about “Knives Out 2” breaks.
“Murder, She Wrote” star Angela Lansbury and Tony-winning icon Stephen Sondheim both have posthumous cameos as themselves in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” Sondheim died in November 2021, with Lansbury passing away October 11, 2022.
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” will become the first-ever Netflix film to debut across all three major US theatrical chains, AMC, Regal, and Cinemark. The “Knives Out” sequel will premiere in theaters for a special one week only event from November 23 through 29 across approximately 600 theaters nationwide, with additional theaters around the world. The film premieres on Netflix December 23.
Rian Johnson told The Los Angeles Times that even though “The Last Jedi” was a “proper sequel” continuing from its predecessor (that Johnson did not write), “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” was a tougher script to pen.
“First of all, it’s not even really a sequel, it’s kind of like another book, basically another mystery with the same detective,” Johnson said. “If anything, going into it was a little scarier even than the ‘Star Wars’ movie, because the first one, when we made it, it was in such a vacuum and we had no idea if people would be into this kind of thing. Genuinely, it was just something that I really loved, a genre I loved, and I’m like, ‘Let’s try this.'”
IndieWire’s Kate Erbland praised Johnson’s follow-up whodunnit, writing, “Johnson needn’t worry about a sophomore slump, because while ‘Glass Onion’ holds some resemblance to his 2019 smash hit (stacked casts, lavish locations, Daniel Craig having the time of his goddamn life), this sequel is zippily and zanily its own thrill ride, and Johnson can’t churn these babies out fast enough.”
We’re finally one step closer to cracking the case of “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” The trailer debuted ahead of the film’s TIFF premiere, and Netflix released an official logline for Rian Johnson’s latest whodunnit. “In the follow up to Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out,’ Detective Benoit Blanc travels to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery involving a new cast of colorful suspects,” the statement reads.
Writer-director-producer Johnson said, “The phrase I kept coming back to and talking about the first movie is, ‘It’s a roller coaster and not a crossword puzzle.’ It’s a common mistake in writing whodunnits, thinking that you’re making a crossword puzzle, and that the fun is that the audience is actually going to analyze all this and figure it out.”
In a new interview with Netflix’s Tudum, writer-director Rian Johnson admitted to setting the location of “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” on his own personal dream vacation. “I was writing [‘Glass Onion’] during the lockdown of 2020, and I wanted to be on a beach vacation more than anything,” Johnson said. “So much of why I’m so into making these is that they just do bring me an intense amount of joy. Working with Daniel [Craig] in this genre and having fun with it and the humor, getting to work with a new group of actors every time, everything about it just brings me happiness.”
The cast descriptions officially were released for “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. In addition to Ed Norton playing tech billionaire and vacation host Miles Bron, along with returning star Daniel Craig reprising his role as Detective Benoit Blanc, the ensemble cast has quite the resumé. Dave Bautista plays Duke Cody, a YouTube star who is dating his assistant, Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). Kate Hudson is fashionista Birdie Jay; Jessia Henwick is her assistant, Peg. Kathyn Hahn portrays Claire DeBalla, a governor running for Senate. Janelle Monáe is Cassandra Brand, a tech entrepreneur, and Leslie Odom Jr. is Lionel Toussaint, a scientist for Norton’s Miles character. Ethan Hawke’s role is undisclosed as of print.
Writer-director Rian Johnson told Empire Magazine that unlike the first film, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” will expand beyond covering wealth disparity.
“The movie itself is not entirely about the income divide, but that definitely has a huge place in it,” Johnson explained of the follow-up feature. “We’re in a moment in history where the divide feels increasingly obscene. Like a circus that we can’t keep our eyes off even as the negative effects of it become more and more real in all our lives.”
After starring as Kentucky detective Benoit Blanc in the first “Knives Out” film, Daniel Craig forgot his funky Southern drawl ahead of the sequel, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” Craig told Empire Magazine that he had to work with an accent coach for “three to four months” before production. “I’d forgotten the accent, and I didn’t want to do a pastiche,” Craig said. “I wanted to make it as grounded and as anchored in reality as possible.”
While the 2022 TIFF premiere occurs in September, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” will officially stream on Netflix December 23. A limited theatrical release will be announced later this year.
Well, well, well, finally Netflix is giving us a clue as to the mystery behind the “Knives Out” sequel plot. The streamer released an official synopsis for “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” stating that tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) “invites some of his nearest and dearest for a getaway on his private Greek island” but that it “soon becomes clear that all is not perfect in paradise.”
The description reads: “And when someone turns up dead, well, who better than Blanc to peel back the layers of intrigue?”
In fact, writer-director Rian Johnson revealed that the perspective of the sequel is rooted in detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he receives a personal invitation to the private island getaway prior to when the murder occurs.
“We’re very much meeting these people and getting into this world through his eyes,” Johnson shared.
While the exact date or placement of the screening has yet to be placed by TIFF, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” will world-premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this September before debuting on Netflix. The festival runs September 8 through 18.
Rian Johnson revealed the title for the sequel in a Twitter thread about mystery writer Agatha Christie on June 13. The next Benoit Blanc installment will be titled “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”
“When I made Knives Out, that’s what excited me about the prospect of making more mysteries with Daniel as Benoit Blanc – to emulate Christie and have every film be like a whole new book, with its own tone, ambition, reason for being… and (ta dah) title,” he wrote. “Much more to come!”
The first “Knives Out” world premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival to rave reviews. IndieWire senior film critic David Ehrlich awarded the film an A- review, calling it “a crackling, devious, and hugely satisfying old-school whodunnit with a modern twist.” The film was distributed by Lionsgate in November 2019 and became a word-of-mouth box office sensation, grossing $311 million worldwide. It’s increasingly rare for an original property to breakout at the box office in such a big way, so it was no surprise when in February 2020 the news came that Johnson and Craig were moving forward with “Knives Out 2.”
“Knives Out” stars Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a master detective who investigates the murder of a wealthy crime novelist. The original film featured an ensemble cast, including Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and the late Christopher Plummer.
On top of the box office success, “Knives Out” proved strong enough to become an awards player during the 2020 Oscar season. The film was nominated for three Golden Globes (Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Daniel Craig, and Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Ana de Armas) and Johnson was Oscar nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Even before “Knives Out” opened in theaters in November 2019, Johnson went on record saying he always envisioned it becoming a franchise of standalone mysteries. “I’ll tell you, the truth is I had such a great time working with Daniel Craig and I had so much fun doing this on every level, from writing it to making it,” Johnson said in September 2019 shortly after the film’s TIFF world premiere. “I’ve never really been interested in doing sequels, but this, the idea of doing more of these with Daniel as his character, is not sequels. It’s just what Agatha Christie did. It’s just coming up with a whole new mystery, a whole new location, all new cast, whole new mechanics of the appeal of a mystery and everything. It’d be a blast.”
Johnson told SiriusXM in February 2020 that he did not even approach writing “Knives Out 2” as if it was a sequel. “There’s so many different things you can do with it. And that’s what’s fun about it. You look at Agatha Christie’s books and it’s not like every single one is a mansion, a library, and a detective. Besides setting, she also explored a bunch of different subgenres. She found a different narrative way into each of them.”
Daniel Craig will continue to be the face of the “Knives Out” franchise as he reprises the role of detective Benoit Blanc. It remains to be seen what new mystery Blanc will investigate. One thing fans do know is that Craig was eager to do a sequel since the release of the first movie, telling Entertainment Weekly in January 2020, “I’d be over the moon [to do a sequel]. I mean, I’d do anything for Rian. If he writes something, I’ll do it. Of course I will. Why wouldn’t I? I had a ton of fun doing it. You aim for that every time, you aim for that to work out. It rarely, rarely does, but it did on that movie and how nice is that?”
Craig nearly missed out on the first “Knives Out” because of his James Bond schedule. Because Craig had his 007 commitment, Johnson did not write Blanc with the actor in mind. As the director told THR, “When I’m writing, I’ve learned that you’ll always get your heart broken if you have your eyes set on somebody because the schedule will always not work out or something will happen. So, I try to write with a blank slate, but then he was top of my list.”
When the Bond film got delayed, it opened a window for Craig to team up with Johnson. “Then it was a very serendipitous moment when the Bond movie pushed three months. This was not like the injury he had; this was before that,” the director said. “It was just a logistic thing, they pushed their schedule, so he suddenly had a window open and we got in there right away and he said yes right away, and we were making the movie right away.”
Everyone is referring to the “Knives Out” sequel as “Knives Out 2,” but that’s just an internet placeholder. Based on an interview Johnson gave to Digital Spy last year, it sounds like the “Knives Out” sequel will have a different title. As the director said, “It’s been such a mindfuck, because I sat on the idea for the first one for 10 years, and with this one, I’m starting with a blank page. It’s not really a ‘Knives Out’ sequel. I need to come up with a title for it so I can stop calling it ‘The Knives Out Sequel’ because it’s just Daniel Craig as the same detective with a totally new cast.” So what will the title be? Probably something original with a subhed along the lines of “A Benoit Blanc Mystery” or “A Knives Out Mystery” should Netflix want to keep the branding.
Dave Bautista was the first new cast member to be announced for “Knives Out 2,” and what followed was a wave of A-list talent set to join the sequel: Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Jessica Henwick, and “Outer Banks” breakout Madelyn Cline. But there are still some surprises left in store for the ensemble cast. Not announced by the trades ahead of filming but seen in the first batch of set photos from the film’s production are Ethan Hawke and Jada Pinkett Smith. As for who these actors are playing in the film, it’s anyone’s guess at this point. No character descriptions or plot details about “Knives Out 2” have been released by Netflix or even teased by the actors.
Dave Bautista has parlayed the breakout success of starring as Drax in Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise into becoming one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors. Not only has Bautista forged a relationship with Denis Villeneuve in films “Blade Runner 2049” and “Dune,” but he also headlined Zack Snyder’s zombie epic “Army of the Dead” just ahead of being officially cast in “Knives Out 2.”
“It feels terrifying. I’m nervous about it. I’m really nervous,” Bautista said about his “Knives Out 2” casting ahead of filming. “It’s one of those things where now the pressure’s on, because people are expecting things from you. I want to deliver. I take pride in that. I’m a game player. I want to throw a touchdown pass.”
Bautista added, “I know the script is brilliant, I know the director is brilliant. The names are going to get bigger and better, and for me, I can’t get it out of my head that — there’s always going to be a part of me that feels like I’m new to this and I’m still learning, and I want to be able to hold my own. So there is a bit of an intimidation factor, because all these actors and directors are just accomplished and seasoned and award-winners. But at the end of the day, this is how I gauge my career, the people I’m working with. The projects that I’m on, the directors that I work with. So I know being announced as part of this cast is a huge statement, because the first film crushed.”
From his Tony-winning role in “Hamilton” to big screen appearances in “Murder on the Orient Express,” “One Night in Miami” (for which he was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor,” and the upcoming “Sopranos” prequel movie “The Many Saints of Newark,” Leslie Odom Jr. has a knack for effortlessly fitting into a powerhouse ensemble cast. That skill should work wonders with “Knives Out 2,” and as the actor told Entertainment Weekly, “I have grown used to doing my best to be a useful member of a killer ensemble, pardon the pun. I’m maybe getting known for that, and I’m not necessarily the guy, at this point, who wants to take it all on his shoulders.”
Odom Jr. added, “It’s a return to work for me with me and Janelle, [and] Kate and I have worked together before. Dave Bautista, I’m a huge fan of. Ed Norton, I’m excited to work with. I’m just a huge fan of that guy’s process. He’s just turned in some of my favorite performances over the years. He’s a real acting savant. And then obviously, Daniel, who’s a legend. I’m going to try not to make a fool of myself. I’m going to show up and take notes, and learn all I can.”
As for Odom Jr. and Kathryn Hahn, the two voice a husband and wife couple on the Apple TV+ animated series “Central Park” but will finally get to share the screen in “Knives Out 2.” The actor said, “Kathryn and I are going to get to work as human people together, which is nice. We only met after having recorded the whole first season. We met on a flight in between season 1 and season 2. We’ve done some press together on Zoom. I saw her recently at the Billboard Music Awards, but the most shared space we’ve had together will be on the set of ‘Knives Out 2,’ strangely enough, even though we play husband and wife.”
Because of the pandemic, many of the “Knives Out 2” cast first spoke to Rian Johnson about the movie over Zoom video conference chats. Such was the case for Kathryn Hahn, who’s continuing her red hot career moment after “WandaVision” with a role in the “Knives Out” sequel. As the actress told MTV, “I’m very excited. I met with Rian a couple times over Zoom and I loved the first one. I love how Rian works with actors and the specificity. I’m a huge Daniel Craig fan. I’m very excited for this.” The first batch of set photos from the “Knives Out 2” production revealed Hahn sporting a visor in scenes opposite Kate Hudson. The two last worked together on “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
It’s not a Rian Johnson movie without cinematographer Steve Yedlin. The director of photography has shot every Johnson-directed feature film, from debut “Brick” through “The Brothers Bloom,” “Looper,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” and “Knives Out.” Here’s what Yedlin told StudioDaily in 2019 about his work with Johnson on the first “Knives Out” film: “One thing Rian and I did discuss in our brief reference phase of ‘Knives Out’ was the [Robert] Altman style of weaving characters together in a space with a fluid, evolving camera that combines dolly moves, zooms and pans. That was a basic guiding principle for us. Then we dove in to planning the actual shots so that when we showed up on set, we had a trajectory.”
Netflix dropped a bombshell on the industry when it announced at the end of March 2021 that it was purchasing the rights to the “Knives Out” franchise and greenlighting two sequels in a deal worth a reported $450 million. The reported price tag makes the Netflix deal the biggest film purchase in history, and it’s around double the budget of the streamer’s “The Gray Man,” which at over $200 million is the most expensive Netflix original film to date. According to THR, the deal was even bigger, as Netflix “inked a dagger-driving $469 million deal” to land Johnson and Ram Bergman, his producing partner at T-Street, for “Knives Out 2” and “Knives Out 3.”
THR reported at the time the deal gives Johnson full creative control of the “Knives Out” franchise, adding, “He doesn’t have to take notes from the streamer. The only contingencies were that Craig must star in the sequels and that each must have at least the budget of the 2019 movie, which was in the $40 million range. Sources say that Johnson, Bergman, and Craig stand to walk away with upwards of $100 million each.”
One of the key members of the original “Knives Out” crafts team was costume designer Jenny Eagan, and she’ll be back with Rian Johnson for the sequel. Eagan’s additional film credits include “The Midnight Sky,” “Wildlife,” “A Serious Man,” and “Beasts of No Nation,” among dozens more films. Whereas the fall setting of the first “Knives Out” resulted in many overcoats and at least one iconic sweater (thank you, Chris Evans), set photos from “Knives Out 2” reveal the sequel is going full summer in Greece. Eagan is playing with a lot more color and free-flowing fabrics this time around.
When news first broke that Netflix was purchasing “Knives Out,” it was reported that “Knives Out 2” would begin production June 28 in Greece. That detail was spot on. Rian Johnson took to social media June 28 to announce the official start of production in Greece with a photo of a camera on set. The director wrote in a caption: “Aaaaaaaand WE’RE OFF! Day one of filming on the next Benoit Blanc mystery. Thanks to all the lovely patient people here in Greece for letting us do all this murdering on their peaceful shores.”
Netflix has not announced a release date for “Knives Out 2.” With production kicking off in June 2021, it stands with good reason that “Knives Out” fans will have to wait until 2022 to see the sequel. And it appears Johnson isn’t even thinking about casting and filming “Knives Out 3” until after the second film, which means 2023 or beyond is most likely for the third installment. Netflix has a robust fall 2021 lineup planned, including hot awards titles such as “Don’t Look Up” and “tick, tick…Boom!” Netflix’s slate might be too crowded this year even if “Knives Out 2” was ready in time. With the film’s Greece setting and summer vibes, our best bet is that “Knives Out 2” launches summer 2022 on Netflix. Expect some kind of exclusive theatrical run ahead of its streaming launch so the film can qualify for awards season.
Variety has reported that the follow-up to the 2019 Academy Award nominee (Best Original Screenplay) is “expected to release in theaters and the streaming platform in the last quarter of 2022″ and will “also make a festival run before its release.” IndieWire has reached out to Netflix for comment.
The original “Knives Out” was released by Lionsgate in the fall of 2019 following a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie earned $311 million on a budget of $40 million.
This time around, Netflix has budgeted an astonishing $450 million for rights for “Knives Out 2” as well as a third installment for the ongoing franchise. The reported price tag makes the Netflix deal the biggest film purchase in history.
