Rian Johnson’s Knives Out morphed into a breakout hit late last year. The Lionsgate whodunnit featured an incredible ensemble cast including the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Ana de Armas, and Chris Evans. In a special feature on the Knives Out home media release, Evans revealed he practically begged Johnson for a role in the flick, chomping at the bit to play the egocentric Hugh Ransom Drysdale.
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“I don’t even think I let him speak,” Evans says of his initial meeting with Johnson. “I think I just kind of was babbling the entire time about what I wanted to do with the role and what I thought I could bring and please cast me, basically. It was just kind of me just pitching him, just begging.”
The micro-budget flick went on to gross over $307 million worldwide, quickly allowing Lionsgate to greenlight a sequel. Unfortunately for Evans, his character won’t be involved in the franchise this time around.
“Think of it like another Hercule Poirot novel from Agatha Christie. So, whole new location, whole new cast. Does that cancel out all your questions?” Johnson said last month. “Not in my movie, but in life? I mean, he lives in Boston so, why not?”
In fact, prior to that particular interview, Johnson admitted he doesn’t really see the sequel as a sequel; rather, he suggests its a separate in-universe story. “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.”
Blanc is a detective character played by Daniel Craig, who’s will be one of the few — perhaps only — characters to reprise their role in the sequel.
Knives Out is now available wherever movies are sold.
