Knives Out was a hit when it was released back in 2019, so news of a sequel received a great response. Is Glass Onion really a sequel, though? The full title, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, certainly suggests so, but it doesn't sound like writer and director Rian Johnson is on board with the subtitle.
During a recent interview with The Atlantic, the filmmaker made it clear he set out to make a series of standalone movies revolving around Daniel Craig's Detective Benoit Blanc rather than a franchise.
With that in mind, we're not surprised that he really wishes "Knives Out" hadn't been included in Glass Onion's title.
"I've tried hard to make them self-contained. Honestly, I’m p*ssed off that we have A Knives Out Mystery in the title. You know? I want it to just be called Glass Onion," Johnson explains. "I get it, and I want everyone who liked the first movie to know this is next in the series, but also, the whole appeal to me is it’s a new novel off the shelf every time."
"But there’s a gravity of a thousand suns toward serialized storytelling," he concluded.
It's easy to see where the filmmaker is coming from here, but it's not the only bone he has to pick with Netflix, the streaming service he signed his mystery series over to as part of a big money deal. When the interviewer put it to him that it's a shame Glass Onion didn't spend longer in theaters, Johnson agreed...while somewhat defending his new employer.
"I’d love it to be [in theaters] longer; I’d love it to be in more theaters. But also, I appreciate that Netflix has done this, because this was a huge effort on their part, and the theater chains, to reach across the aisle and make this happen. I’m hoping it does really well so we can demonstrate that they can complement each other."
Like it or not, the future of movies does appear to be tied to streaming. Knives Out grossed a massive $312 million on a reported $40 million budget, but the number of subscribers a movie like Glass Onion can attract may mean even more from a financial standpoint these days!
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (sorry, Rian!) is now streaming on Netflix.