Over the course of the past five years, Rian Johnson has gone from being the director behind one of the most divisive Star Wars movies to the beloved creator of the next great murder mystery comedy franchise with Knives Out. And, even though the second of hopefully many adventures of Daniel Craig’s Detective Benoit Blanc – the upcoming Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – has yet to made available on Netflix (the movie did have a brief theatrical release), it’s safe to say that fans of Johnson’s dark comedies, and whodunits in general, are eager to see what the future holds for the property.
At some point in the not-so-distant future, Knives Out 3 will be here with a new mystery, a new location, a new set of characters (besides Mr. Blanc, of course), and a new level of intrigue. Though we don’t yet know the release date, who will be appearing, or even the official title, there are a few things of note we do know about the Netflix exclusive title. Let’s unfold those layers now, shall we?
Knives Out 3 Will Eventually Premiere On Netflix
Not only has an exact date not yet been announced for Knives Out 3, we don’t even have a release window for the third chapter in Rian Johnson’s sprawling murder mystery franchise. But, what we do know is that the movie will eventually premiere on Netflix thanks to the massive exclusivity deal Johnson signed with the streaming giant in the spring of 2021.
In the event you have forgotten, or missed, the news the first time around, Deadline reported in March 2021 that Netflix had agreed to pay around $450 million for the exclusive streaming rights to the franchise, starting with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which hadn’t entered production at the time of the deal. It remains to be seen if Netflix will give Knives Out 3 a brief theatrical run similar to Glass Onion, which ran for one week in approximately 600 theaters in November 2022.
Daniel Craig Is The Only Confirmed Member Of The Knives Out 3 Cast So Far
As of right now, Daniel Craig, who will be reprising the role of Detective Benoit Blanc, is the only member of the Knives Out 3 cast confirmed so far, but that should all change at some point in the next year or so. When The Hollywood Reporter was covering the mammoth March 2021 Netflix deal, the outlet not only reaffirmed Craig’s role in two Knives Out sequels, it also reported that the actor, along with Rian Johnson and production partner Ram Bergman, could make upwards of $100 million from the deal.
The Knives Out cast, which included the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Ana De Armas, and the late Christopher Plummer, started off the franchise in fantastic fashion with varying levels of on-screen chemistry with Craig. None of the actors, besides Craig, appeared in the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery cast three years later, but Johnson put together a group of actors that was just as impressive with everyone from Dave Bautista and Kate Hudson to Edward Norton appearing in the Mediterranean-set whodunit. All of this is to say that whomever Johnson approaches to appear in Knives Out 3 will most likely knock it out of the park in the upcoming murder mystery.
Rian Johnson Plans To Start Writing Knives Out 3 After The New Year
There is no word on when Knives Out 3 will enter production, but writer-director Rian Johnson does know when he will start writing the movie in earnest. When speaking with Deadline in the leadup to the release of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Johnson revealed that while he is constantly “jotting stuff down” in his trusty Moleskine notebook, he plans on starting the script after the New Year:
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.
But Johnson isn’t immediately jumping into Knives Out 3 because he’s contractually obligated to do so, he’s jumping back into the franchise because it’s all he can think about right now, as he explained earlier in the Deadline profile:
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.
The final line of that quote about figuring out how to do something completely different adds another layer of intrigue and excitement when it comes to Knives Out 3, and could lead to all sorts of possibilities.
Rian Johnson Plans To Make More Knives Out Movies
As it currently stands, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Knives Out 3 are the only upcoming movies in the franchise that have been greenlit by Netflix, but this isn’t to say Rian Johnson is going to end things after the third movie is released. During the premiere of Glass Onion at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (via Variety), Johnson joked about the property’s future, saying he plans to keep making them until Daniel Craig “blocks me on his phone.”
Who knows, maybe Johnson and Craig will team up enough times to match, or even eclipse, the actor’s James Bond appearances. In case you were wondering, Craig played 007 a total of five times, starting with 2006’s Casino Royale and ending with 2021’s No Time to Die.
Don’t Forget About Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Although Knives Out 3 won’t be here anytime soon, it won’t be any time at all until we are able to watch Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery streaming, after spending the better part of the year going through first look images, teasers, trailers, and more, trying to figure out clues to help solve the central mystery. Unlike the one-week theatrical release, Rian Johnson’s latest feature film will stick around and continue to be one of the best movies on Netflix for quite a while, after hitting the service on December 23.
Expect to hear more about Knives Out 3 as time goes on, including when those with a Netflix subscription will be able to watch the latest film in the franchise. Until then, get a head start on all the exciting 2023 movies that we’ll be talking about in the meantime.
