Apologies to Chris Evans’ chunky sweater, but there’s a lot less wool and a lot more linen in the Knives Out follow-up, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Detective Benoit Blanc heads to Greece in the latest installment of Rian Johnson’s whodunit series, in which the detective peels back the layers of a mystery involving a new cast of colorful, well-to-do suspects — and a more weather-appropriate wardrobe.
The clear blue waters of the Aegean Sea are the setting for the new murder mystery, which began filming in Greece late last June. Daniel Craig returns to the role he originated in 2019, and he’s ready to take on an all-new case. The film is even bigger than the first Knives Out, both in scale and in tone. “This one is probably a little more [Dr.] Strangelove-y than Knives Out,” Johnson told Tudum. “It’s a little bit more of a satire. And the essence of it, because of the structure of it, it’s a little bit more of a mystery farce than Knives Out.”
What else do we know about Glass Onion, which Johnson wrote and directed, and produced alongside Ram Bergman? Read on for a list of our latest clues.
Along with a whole new cast and setting, the new Knives Out mystery will also have a new title: Say goodbye to Knives Out2 and hello to Glass Onion. What’s the significance? True to puzzle-box form, it’s got quite a few different hidden meanings, but the most important one is linguistic. “I’m always fishing for something fun that Blanc can grab onto as an overwrought metaphor that he can beat to death,” Johnson told Tudum. It’s also a description of the film’s setting: Tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) has built a lavish glass dome on his private island — a monument to his supersize ego.
You can scour the Glass Onion trailers below for clues. Come for a glimpse of the star-studded suspects in action; stay for Benoit Blanc’s snappy, striped two-piece swimsuit. Not to worry — no spoilers!
Johnson wants each Knives Out mystery to take on a wildly different energy from the previous one. Just as Benoit Blanc is inspired by Hercule Poirot, the writer-director is inspired by Poirot’s creator, Agatha Christie. “It wasn’t just settings or murder methods, [Christie] 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, [and] glam travelogues,” Johnson said in his tweets announcing the title. “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, [and] reason for being.”
So, the new Knives Out mystery takes Blanc far from the snowy New England climes of the original film and drops him into the middle of an extravagant Greek island getaway. When the debonair detective receives a mysterious invitation to a murder mystery party hosted by Bron, his interest is piqued, and the game is afoot.
Craig reprises his role as Southern gentleman/detective extraordinaire Blanc and is joined by new suspects including Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista. This is a dinner party you won’t want to miss.
Glass Onion was filmed on location in Greece. Luxury vacation spot Villa 20 at the Amanzoe resort in Porto Heli plays the part of Bron’s lavish estate, with the billionaire’s giant layered glass dome added in later via VFX. Don’t have the budget to visit in person? Take a 3D tour of the set here.
Want to stay in the world of whodunits a little longer? Channel your inner Benoit Blanc with these book recommendations from Rian Johnson himself. And if a murder mystery movie night is what you need, here are 10 killer titles to turn to.
Glass Onion is now streaming on Netflix.
