Knives Out 2 Star Dave Bautista Speaks Out on Joining Rian Johnson’s Sequel

Between Guardians of the Galaxy, Blade Runner 2049, and the recent Army of the Dead, Dave Bautista has found his way into some pretty compelling franchises. Earlier this month, it was announced that the fan-favorite actor would be joining yet another one, as he has been cast in a role in Netflix’s Knives Out sequel. While the specifics of Bautista’s role in the film has yet to be revealed, the actor recently broke his silence about the project in an interview with Vulture, and revealed that one specific aspect of writer-director Rian Johnson’s filmography drew him to the project.

“It’s way too early, but, I have to say, I talk to Rian and I’m very familiar with his film career and the big films that he’s done,” Bautista explained. “But what I was so excited to talk to him about was his episodes of Breaking Bad, because I’m a huge Breaking Bad fan. Watching the stuff that he did with Breaking Bad, those are the kinds of really interesting directorial performances that I’m excited about. I want to get some of that direction.”

Odom Jr. joins a cast that includes Daniel Craig returning as Detective Benoit Blanc, with Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, and Edward Norton all cast in currently unknown roles. Filming is expected to begin sometime this summer in Greece.

Knives Out 2 will be a unique kind of follow-up to the 2019 hit, with Craig’s Detective Blanc solving a completely unrelated case from the death of Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) in the first film.

“I’m actually writing another Knives Out,” Johnson explained late last year. “It’s been such a mindf-ck, because I sat on the idea for the first one for 10 years. And with this one, I’m starting with a blank page. It’s not really a Knives Out sequel. I need to come up with a title for it so I can stop calling it The Knives Out Sequel because it’s just Daniel Craig as the same detective with a totally new cast.”

“In my mind, I don’t even think of it in terms of like a sequel,” Johnson said previously. “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.”

What do you think of Bautista joining the cast of Knives Out 2? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!