Now that the Writers Guild strike has come to an end, work has resumed on a number of productions that had been stalled during the dispute. Among them is Knives Out 3, according to an interview given this week by its writer/director Rian Johnson.
Johnson told The Wrap that he and Daniel Craig are back on track with a new installment of the detective thriller, which made its debut in 2019, followed by a 2022 sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

“It’s coming along,” Johnson was quoted as saying.

“I obviously couldn’t work during the strike, and now that it’s over, I’m diving in full force, and so it’s coming along.

I’ve got the premise, I’ve got the setting, I’ve got what the movie is in my head. It’s just a matter of writing the damn thing.”

In the original Knives Out film, Daniel Craig played the lead role of Benoit Blanc, a private detective investigating the murder of the elderly crime novelist, Harlan Thrombey, played by Christopher Plummer. Other cast members included Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, and Jaeden Martell.

In the Glass Onion sequel, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Craig reprised his role, this time sleuthing a murder on a billionaire’s private island. The star was joined by Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, and Madelyn Cline.

Several months after its release, Johnson told an interviewer for Variety: “We make these movies as entertainment first and foremost. What was exciting about doing [Glass Onion] was the notion of trying to emulate [Agatha] Christie with a completely new story. I’m starting to work on the third movie now, and that’s also what’s got me creatively jazzed: I don’t have to replicate the last movie at all. The goal is to strike out in a completely new direction tonally and thematically.”

The commercial and critical success of the original Knives Out production prompted Netflix to buy the rights to two more installments for a hefty $450 million. The investment seemed a wise one: during the first 28 days of streaming, Glass Onion racked up some 359.8 million viewing hours.

At this point, it’s too premature to speculate about cast, characters, and setting, but all indications point to a 2024 release date, which means Johnson is under pressure to just “write the damn thing.

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