Rian Johnson Reveals New Details About Knives Out Sequel

Rian Johnson is having a big week. Not only is the writer/director of Knives Out nominated for his first Academy Award (Best Adapted Screenplay), but it was just announced that his hit film will be getting a sort-of sequel. The director plans to create at least one more film starring Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, which will put the character in a whole new mystery. In fact, it could even establish an entire franchise. In a recent interview with SiriusXM, Johnson spoke about the next Benoit Blanc film and his vision.

“In my mind, I don’t even think of it in terms of like a sequel… Ever since we started working on this I was like, look, if we can keep this going, the same way Agatha Christie wrote a bunch of Poirot novels. I mean, do that with Blanc and keep making more mysteries. Whole new cast, whole new location, whole new mystery. It’s just another Benoit Blanc mystery and it seems like there’s just so many different things you can do with it, you know? It seems like it’d be really fun.”

When asked if he had any ideas of where the sequel would be set, Johnson joked, “space.”

Johnson went on to talk more about Christie and how her mysteries didn’t all take place in big mansions and how she “explored subgenres.”

“Just like any movie, you can also thematically attack something totally new with it,” he added.

You can watch the full clip in the video above or click here.

“There’s a lot that has to happen: First and foremost, I have to write a script that’s worth a damn, so we’ll see,” Johnson admitted to EW. “I don’t want to jump the gun, but it’s something I would love to do. First of all, because I had so much fun working with Daniel, and second, just because of the idea of doing the same thing that Agatha Christie did with Poirot and Miss Marple — just doing a whole different deal with Benoit Blanc as the detective. The possibilities of that seem endless in a way that’s really exciting.”

At the Oscars, Johnson is going up against Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood), and Bong Joon Ho & Han Jin Won (Parasite).

Knives Out is now available to own on Digital HD and will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K on February 25th. The 92nd Academy Awards air on ABC on February 9th.