Part of what made Rian Johnson's Knives Out such a spectacular film was the incredible cast that he was able to assemble to play the detective, the victim, and all the suspects. That feat of casting was repeated for Glass Onion. Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc has been the only actor lucky enough to appear in both movies, and Rian Johnson says that’s the way it needs to be, because if they bring one person back, they’ll need to bring everybody back.
Because Knives Out and Glass Onion are mystery stories in the vein of Agatha Christie, each case stands on its own, so only the detective is the same. That doesn’t mean that the rest of the cast doesn’t wish they could return. While speaking with Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig for Glass Onion, On Demand Entertainment shared a clip of Jamie Lee Curtis saying she wished that she could have returned for the sequel. When asked if there might be a chance for precious characters to return in future sequels, Johnson, jokingly, squashed the idea, saying…
If we do it for one we'll have to do it for all of them and then Kathryn Hahn will be on our ass, it’ll be a whole thing.
From all accounts, making these movies has been a lot of fun for the people involved, so it’s not all that shocking if several of the former actors would be happy to return. But now with two movies full of great actors, if you were going to bring some of them back, there would almost certainly be some who wouldn’t get the call and would be annoyed. It certainly sounds like Kathryn Hahn has already made it clear she’d love to return.
Since we know that a third Benoit Blanc movie is on the horizon, there is at least the possibility that we could see characters from the previous films return, but that does seem unlikely. At the same time, the casting bar for this franchise is incredibly high and Rian Johnson will have to find a dozen or so great actors to become part of the new story, so maybe bringing back previous performers would be a good idea, as it would just make casting the film a lot easier.
On the one hand seeing old cast return could certainly be fun, but part of what makes Glass Onion so great is the ways in which it is a complete departure from Knives Out. It is a mystery story to be solved but the characters are all very different and mystery itself is approached from a completely different angle.
Following a brief, but successful theatrical run for Glass Onion, the film is set to arrive on Netflix on Friday.
