Knives Out 2 Gets An Intriguing New Title

In 2019, the whodunnit murder mystery film, "Knives Out," was released to theaters. The Rian Johnson-directed film begins when Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), an ultra-wealthy mystery writer, is found dead in his home. Soon, a private investigator named Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) arrives to interrogate the many members of Harlan's family, as well as his nurse, and close friend Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas). The rest of the ensemble cast includes Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, and Jaeden Martell.

Upon its release, "Knives Out" quickly became a massive success, both critically and commercially. The film — which earned Johnson an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay — has a near-perfect Tomatometer score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, next to a 92% audience score. Additionally, it made over $300 million worldwide in box office sales (via Box Office Mojo). It's no wonder that Netflix bought the rights to two "Knives Out" sequels for a whopping $450 million back in March of 2021 (via Variety). The new film will see Benoit Blanc solve another crime with a brand-new set of characters. The cast for the first sequel will include Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., Dave Bautista, and Edward Norton. As reported by Collider, filming took place in Greece in 2021.

After years of work behind the scenes, we finally know the upcoming film's title — and it's an intriguing one.

On June 13, writer-director Rian Johnson took to Twitter to announce the name of the "Knives Out" sequel. According to a short teaser released by Johnson, the follow-up film will be titled "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." The first part of the title likely comes from the Beatles song of the same name from 1968's "The White Album." Similarly, "Knives Out" is the title of a Radiohead song off of their 2001 album "Amnesiac."

Seeing as the new title is a bit of a unique one, Johnson also gave a detailed account of his naming process — which directly involves his admiration for famous mystery writer Agatha Christie. In a tweet thread posted before the title was announced, Johnson wrote, "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." 

In another part of the thread, Johnson elaborated that Christie often incorporated diverse genres such as spy thriller, gothic romances, character studies, and more. Johnson continued, "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."

The teaser also revealed that the film will be released later this year, sometime during the holiday season. Of course, this is in tune with the release date of the first film, which entered theaters on November 27, 2019.