Johnson at the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ photocall, December 2022. Shutterstock
His candid opinion. Rian Johnson has found success creating the Knives Out franchise — but the director isn’t thrilled with every aspect of the Glass Onion sequel.
During an interview with The Atlantic, which was published on Monday, December 26, Johnson, 49, admitted that he wasn’t happy with the title for the second Knives Out installment.
“I’ve tried hard to make them self-contained,” he explained, referring to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. “Honestly, I’m pissed off that we have A Knives Out Mystery in the title. You know? I want it to just be called Glass Onion.”
The producer continued: “I get it, and I want everyone who liked the first movie to know this is next in the series, but also, the whole appeal to me is it’s a new novel off the shelf every time. But there’s a gravity of a thousand suns toward serialized storytelling.”
Knives Out became a pop culture phenomenon when the first movie was released in 2019. The murder mystery introduced viewers to Daniel Craig as master detective Benoit Blanc who investigates the mysterious passing of a famous fictional author.
The first installment in the franchise also featured Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Christopher Plummer and Jaeden Martell.
After Netflix bought the rights to the next two Knives Out films, Johnson brought Craig, 54, back in the anthology series.
The ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ film premiere, November 2022. Stewart Cook/Shutterstock
Glass Onion, which was released earlier this month, explored the murders surrounding a tech billionaire and his old friends. The sequel starred Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista.
Before Glass Onion’s premiere, Johnson explained why he liked not having to connect the stories beyond Craig’s character.
“Part of the fun of these things is the idea that they’re not sequels, they’re completely new books and they’re completely new stories,” he explained to Variety in September. “To me, the idea for the next one — and I’m going to try to stay in this state of mind as I write it — it’s not about trying to top the previous one, it’s about just trying to create something that surprises us and thus hopefully will surprise the audience and thus delight the audience.”
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is available to stream on Netflix.