Netflix Wants First Knives Out Movie Ahead of Glass Onion Premiere

After Knives Out wowed audiences and critics alike, Netflix jumped headfirst into the world of the murder mystery, snagging up rights to two direct sequels. Both sequels, Glass Onion and an unnamed third Knives Out flick, are written and shot by Rian Johnson and will debut exclusively on the streamer. The only problem is despite dropping nearly $500 million to acquire the franchise rights, Netflix was unable to land licensing rights to the original picture.

That means that as it stands now, when Glass Onion hits Netflix this Christmas, subscribers won't be able to watch Knives Out on the same service before hand. The latest report of the licensing struggles comes from Matthew Beloni's Puck News, which says talks are ongoing between Netflix and Lionsgate though the latter isn't in a rush to license to its competitor after losing out on producing the sequels.

Though set in the Knives Out world, the only character returning for Glass Onion is Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc. The star-studded ensemble for the sequel includes Edward Norton, Madelyn Cline, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Kate Hudson, Ethan Hawke, and Janelle Monae.

"You try and invite people that you like. But the reality is you never know. At the end of the day, just trying to get the best actors in each part, the actors that are most right for each individual part," Johnson told Netflix in regards to the cast. "So, you also just throw the dice and hold your breath. Luckily, we got a great group that really meshed."

"Blanc was always outside of the sphere of our protagonist and was a little bit more of an enigma in the first movie," Johnson added. "Whereas, in this one, Blanc gets an invitation to come to this murder mystery on this island."

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery arrives on Netflix this December 23rd. Ahead of its public release, the film's world premiere comes at TIFF next month and will close out the BFI London Film Festival on October 16th.