Rian Johnson wants to “hop right into” making ‘Knives Out 3’

Knives Out creator Rian Johnson says he’s already thinking about a third film in the series, and wants to “hop right into” making it.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the second film in the Knives Out franchise, following the 2019 original, is currently in cinemas ahead of a December 23 release on Netflix.

The sequel sees Daniel Craig reprise his role as detective Benoit Blanc, with the detective travelling to Greece to solve his latest case. He stars alongside an all-new cast including Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Jessica Henwick, Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr. and Madelyn Cline.

In an interview with Deadline alongside Craig, Monáe and more about Glass Onion, Johnson said his mind has already turned to a third film.

He said: “It’s interesting. We structured the [Netflix deal] so that if I wanted to do something else next, I could. And I think everybody assumed I’d have a couple other random ideas — unrelated projects — that I’ve been kicking around. But, honestly, over the past couple of months, the most exciting creative thing to me right now is that third movie.

“And so, I think I’m going to hop right into it. Not because of a contractual obligation, but, genuinely, that’s the shiny object I find my nose pointed toward right now. [It’s] the idea of figuring out how it can be completely different from this one as well as the first one.”

Discussing his creative process, Johnson added: “I’ve got a Moleskine notebook that I carry everywhere and I’m constantly jotting stuff down in it. The first 80 percent of the process, for me, is scribbling in notebooks and structuring it all out. I’m trying to get ahead.

“Even when I’m doing all the publicity for this film, I’m trying to start building up a structure, an idea, so that after New Year, when it’s time to actually get to work, I’m hopefully not just staring at that horrible blank page. But you always are, I guess.”

Discussing issues with the potential limits of the whodunit genre, the director added: “It’s tough, because it’s not an expansive genre. It’s not like there are thousands of classics, like film noir, where it feels like there’s unlimited amount of stuff to draw from. There’s been plenty of different Agatha Christie adaptations over the years, and those are always fun to dig into. But in terms of actual innovative stuff in the genre, you do find yourself coming back to the same titles.

“It’s funny, because every time we release a Knives Out movie, I’m asked, ‘What are the five whodunnits that you would recommend to people?’ And it’s going to be very frustrating by the third movie to be naming the same five over and over again. That’s why I’m trying to dig deeper into the genre and see if there’s any hidden gems I’m missing.”

Reviewing Glass Onion, NME wrote: “Everything that this year’s awful Death On The Nile wasn’t, Glass Onion celebrates the murder-mystery with style and sass by crafting Hollywood’s most expensive looking parlour game. This is what winter afternoons were made for.”

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