Everything to Know About ‘Knives Out 2’

We’ve got to do this more often. Following its commercial and critical success, Knives Out will return with two new sequels on Netflix.

The 2019 mystery film following Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he tried to figure out who killed a famous crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). With the help of Marta (Ana de Armas), the detective had the entire Thrombey family to investigate. Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell all appeared in the movie.

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Knives Out went on to be nominated for three Golden Globes and writer Rian Johnson received an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. Even before the murder feature found success, Johnson shared his plans for creating more stories that could stand on their own.

“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 an interview for 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.”

Craig, who stood out in the movie with his unique accent, previously discussed how Johnson’s approach to the topics in Knives Out benefited the storytelling.

“It’s a very funny, entertaining movie. Let’s just get that out right now. But what Rian is so brilliant at doing, he’s just layered in some really nice social commentary. We did this last year; we finished this time last year, and it’s right up to date. Everything’s in there,” he told Screenrant in November 2019. “This is a movie which hopefully will entertain, but which will raise up some issues. Hopefully not cause a row, but cause some good discussion.”

Even though viewers loved the set up for Knives Out, the writer and director confirmed that the next chapter is not going to follow the same circumstance as before.

“There’s so many different things you can do with it. And that’s what’s fun about it,” Johnson said to SiriusXM in February 2020. “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.”

Scroll down for all the details to know so far about Knives Out 2:

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Release Date

The movie will be released in theaters for a special one week engagement starting November 23, 2022, before premiering December 23, 2022, on Netflix.

Credit: Claire Folger/Lionsgate/Kobal/Shutterstock

Benoit Blanc Returns

After his scene-stealing performance, it was confirmed in March 2021 that Craig would be the focus of the next two films. The James Bond star previously talked about wanting to return to the Knives Out universe.

“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 told Entertainment Weekly in January 2020.

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New Cast

Knives Out 2 will have plenty of suspects for fans including Dave Bautista, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline.

Bautista discussed joining the popular franchise after his involvement was announced.

“It feels terrifying. I’m nervous about it. I’m really nervous,” Bautista told Slash Film before filming began in May 2021. “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.”

He 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.”

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An International Adventure

A new mystery means a new location to set it in.

“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,” Johnson captioned a photo of a camera on set in June 2021.

Credit: Courtesy Kate Hudson/Instagram

Happy Reunions

Hudson and Hahn, who worked on How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, celebrated their new project together with a cute selfie on location in Greece.

“Reunited baby yeah!!! If we can’t get Kathryn Hahn on @instagram then I’ll just keep having her take these pics with her selfie face and post them myself! Love and missed my bestie ❤️#datenight #feelslikeyesterdayHTLAG” Hudson captioned the group photo via Instagram in June 2021. Hudson’s boyfriend Danny Fujikawa and Hahn’s husband, Ethan Sandler, were also in the shot.

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A Fresh Title

Fans may need to prepare for completely new titles.

“It’s been such a mindf–k, 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,” Johnson told Digital Spy in September 2020.

Credit: Claire Folger

A Wrap on Filming

Writer and director Johnson confirmed on September 13, 2021, that filming wrapped on the movie. “We just wrapped production on the next Benoit Blanc mystery,” he tweeted before giving a shout-out to Leos Carax’s musical psychological film Anette. “And also I finally watched Annette and holy s—t it’s amazing. Sending so much love and gratitude to our INCREDIBLE crew and cast and Leos Carax!”

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Filming Was a Party — Despite the Pandemic

The Knives Out 2 cast was “weirdly making a film in lockdown,” Craig told Andy Cohen Live in October 2021, but he wanted to make sure the experience was still fun for everyone. 

“Ordinarily you get to socialize a bit more with the rest of the crew,” he said. “But we had a bubble of actors and the director and a few other people, and … I just sort of instigated a party once every couple of weeks, just so that we could sort of get together and take our masks off.”

Since they were all being tested for COVID-19 throughout shooting, they were able to “make sure that we weren’t infecting each other” at these get-togethers, the No Time to Die star said. Still, the experience of filming during a pandemic was “sort of crazy,” he continued, adding, “but we had to get together and just hang out.” 

His plan seemed to work, since he told host Andy Cohen there were “lots of Negronis and tequila” at these late-night affairs. The parties also gave him a chance to get to know his famous castmates, who had him a little starstruck. “There was a great team of people,” the British actor said. “I mean, Janelle Monáe, wow.”

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It’s Better Than the Original

Craig promised that the sequel is not just a remake of the original, it’s something all its own. “Dare I say it’s better?” the Skyfall actor told Empire in October 2021. “We’ll see. I don’t want to tempt fate. It’s different, and that’s the amazing thing.”

He continued, “It’s still a Benoit Blanc mystery, but it’s very different. I’m very excited about it.”

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A Long Wait

Henwick, a longtime fan of Rian Johnson, is thrilled she’s finally getting the chance to have a larger role in one of his films. She was supposed to have a small role in his Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, after appearing in J.J. Abrams‘ The Force Awakens, but her character was cut from the movie.

“Cut to this year, I finally got sent this script and I was like, ‘Put me in coach. Give me a Zoom. I don’t care if I get it. I just want to speak to Rian,'” the Matrix Resurrections star told The Hollywood Reporter in December 2021. “So I revealed all of this to him. I was like, ‘I have a bone to pick with you!’ And of course, he was forced — he was morally obligated — to cast me in Knives Out.”

As they were filming the project, the Brick director allowed her to watch him work. “The main reason I really signed on was because I actually wanted to study him,” Henwick explained. “He let me shadow him on and off throughout production, and he gave me directing advice. So it was just the best time.”

Credit: Courtesy of Rian Johnson/Twitter

First Look

In a trailer previewing all the 2022 Netflix films, the streamer gave a quick look at the first footage from Knives Out 2. The shot shows Detective Blanc in a sunny, seaside locale. He’s on a dock with several of the new cast members boarding a boat. Hahn, Henwick, Hudson, Odom, Cline and Bautista’s characters are briefly seen turning toward the camera.

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What Is the Title of ‘Knives Out 2’?

Johnson revealed in June 2022 that the sequel, set for a holiday release, is titled Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

“Something I love about Agatha Christie is how she never tread water creatively. I think there’s a misperception that her books use the same formula over and over, but fans know the opposite is true,” the writer tweeted at the time. “It wasn’t just settings or murder methods, she was constantly stretching the genre conceptually. Under the umbrella of the whodunnit, she wrote spy thrillers, proto-slasher horrors, serial killer hunts, gothic romances, psychological character studies, glam travelogues. 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.”

Credit: Netflix

Focusing on Blanc

“You definitely get to know [Blanc] a little bit better,” Johnson told Netflix’s TUDUM in August 2022 about the detective. “In the first one, because of the way it was structured, Marta, Ana de Armas’ character, was very much the protagonist. In a big way, Blanc was the threat. He was almost the antagonist in terms of just the story structure, because you were worried, even as they got closer, that he was going to catch her and he was going to have to turn her over at the end.”

He added: “So Blanc was always outside of the sphere of our protagonist and was a little bit more of an enigma in the first movie. Whereas, in this one, Blanc gets an invitation to come to this murder mystery on this island. We’re very much meeting these people and getting into this world through his eyes.”

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Will Daniel Craig Bring Back Detective Benoit’s Southern Accent?

The detective’s distinct southern drawl was memorable for viewers — but not for Craig. The actor had to brush up on the dialect before filming the sequel.

“I went away to work with an accent coach for three or four months before we started shooting,” Craig told Empire in an August 2022 profile. “I’d forgotten the accent and I didn’t want to do a pastiche. I wanted to make it as grounded and as anchored in reality as possible.”

Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

The First Look

“Lock your doors. Stay in your rooms. Everyone is in danger,” Craig’s Benoit Blanc teases in the first trailer for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which was released in September 2022. The first look at the highly-anticipated sequel revealed that the film will center on a group of people gathered on an island to solve a puzzle — only for the game to turn unexpectedly deadly.

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A Special Cameo

Following Angela Lansbury’s death at age 96 in October 2022, it was confirmed that she will make a brief cameo in Knives Out 2. This will mark her final film appearance. Stephen Sondheim also made his final appearance in the movie. See the complete list of cameos. 

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Learning More About Benoit

In October 2022, Johnson confirmed Benoit’s sexuality after being asked a panel if the character is queer. “Yes, he obviously is,” the director said via Entertainment Weekly, hinting that viewers will see the Benoit’s partner in the sequel. “There’s nobody in the world I can imagine in bringing me more joy for Benoit Blanc to be with.”

Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Official Trailer

The official trailer for the highly anticipated sequel dropped in early November 2022. The clip opens with guests, including Benoit, arriving in Greece for a weekend getaway hosted by Norton’s character, tech billionaire Miles Bron, for a murder mystery party that ultimately goes wrong.

Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Something Fresh and New

Johnson teased to Entertainment Weekly ahead of the premiere that the next installment was going to be a “very different animal” and “not just repeating a formula.”

Credit: John Wilson/Netflix

A Look Inside from the New Ensemble

The cast opened up about their characters in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in November 2022, with Hudson explaining that the film focuses on “terrible people” who “do terrible things all the time, and it’s delicious to watch.”

Hahn added that Johnson “doesn’t just pick people who are right for the parts, but instead “everyone is on the same playing field.”

Norton, for his part, noted that “there’s a lot of exuberance within the story” and the audience “can feel that a lot of fun has gone into making it.”