Glass Onion writer-director Rian Johnson had made no secret that adding the subtitle “A Knives Out Mystery” to the film was not his idea. While the move is a sequel to his 2019 hit murder mystery, Johnson does see Glass Onion, or any future movies, as “Knives Out” movies, but he sees them as something much more like, say, a Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes movie. When it comes to Knives Out 3, Johnson is hoping the success of Glass Onion will allow its central detective Benoit Blanc to gain recognition in his own right among audiences. He told the Filmcast podcast:
“The thing is, though, I totally get it. It’s not like this was done against my will or something. I completely understand it. Because after the first movie, I think people knew that they liked ‘Knives Out’ [but] they didn’t necessarily know it well enough to know who Benoit Blanc was. I think that would’ve gotten blank stares. And I wanted everyone who loved ‘Knives Out’ to know that [‘Glass Onion’] is the next one of those. So I absolutely 100% was on board and totally got it that we had to do that. But also, it kills me a little bit and I want to see how quickly we can lose that subtitle. As soon as we can get past those and get to ‘A Benoit Blanc Mystery’ … and I will say, with this one, with the reach of Netflix and just how many more people I feel like have seen it and how much more it feels like it’s actually in the culture, we’re at least getting closer to being able to get away with ‘A Benoit Blanc Mystery’ and people would know what we’re talking about.”
Does Calling Glass Onion “A Knives Out Mystery” Even Make Sense?
In one way, Netflix’s approach to giving Glass Onion the subtitle it did makes perfect sense. Having invested heavily in the acquisition of two Knives Out sequels, it is obvious that the streamer would want to capitalize on the name by making sure everyone knew the movies were connected. However, the only connection between the movies is Daniel Craig’s enigmatic detective, Benoit Blanc, and that is where the Knives Out link ends.
It is therefore not surprising that Johnson would love to change the common tag from Knives Out to Benoit Blanc, and with Craig’s detective having imprinted himself in the public consciousness, there is no reason to see why that could not be done with Knives Out 3…or perhaps that should be Benoit Blanc 3.
Whatever subtitle the movie goes with, and with the film being part of Netflix’s initial two-picture deal that could well remain A Knives Out Mystery, we can expect another strange but relevant main title, as well as another intricate and unwinding plot when Benoit Blanc returns for his third mystery. Will there be more cases for the detective beyond that? Well, that is a mystery that probably won’t take too much solving.
