Following the 2019 release of the fan-favorite mystery, Knives Out stars such as Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas and Chris Evans have only continued to find success with other projects.
The first film in the franchise focused on Benoit Blanc (Craig) as he tried to figure out who killed a famous crime novelist Harlan Thrombey. With help from the late writer’s nurse Marta (de Armas), the detective started to investigate the entire Thrombey family.
After the movie’s resounding success, director Rian Johnson confirmed that he would be expanding the universe.
“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,” he told Uproxx in September 2019. “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.”
Netflix ultimately bought the rights to the next two sequels — both of which include Craig in the role of Benoit. Before Glass Onion was released in December 2022, the actor confirmed his plans to play the beloved detective for as long as possible.
“If he keeps writing them, I’ll keep doing them. That’s what makes it easy then, he’s such a wonderful writer that it’s there on the page for me to do,” he told Variety in September 2022 about his collaboration with Johnson.
The first sequel in the series introduced a new cast starring Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista. Glass Onion also surprised fans with Benoit’s partner, Phillip, who was played by Hugh Grant.
“You are supposed to reflect life. And that [gay] relationship reflects people in my life,” Craig told The Sunday Times in November 2022 about exploring his character’s personal life. “It’s normal. But we don’t make a song and dance out of it. It just feels right.”
Johnson, for his part, noted that addressing Blanc’s sexuality “just made sense” to him and Craig, adding, “We didn’t want to be coy or cute about it. We just wanted it to be a fact of the character.”
Scroll down to see where the stars of the original Knives Out movie are now.