Rian Johnson’s followup to his polarizing Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, was a highly-acclaimed and Oscar-nominated whodunnit that brought together an insanely talented ensemble to portray the Drysdale family as they scramble for inheritance money following the mysterious death of Christopher Plummer’s patriarch. But for some reason, the internet decided to crossover The Muppets with Knives Out, and I'm not mad at it.
Since last week, Twitter users have been answering a fun trend that has them pick a movie to keep one human actor and replace the rest with Muppets. The Office’s Mindy Kaling picked Ethan Hawke in Dead Poets Society, but some other popular ones have been Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, Judi Dench in Cats and Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Sure, it’s a odd exercise, but then it struck gold with this:
So the concept here is that Daniel Craig’s unhinged and Southern-drawn Benoit Blanc would be making donut metaphors to a room full of Drysdale muppets in this reimagined Knives Out. The bit of photoshop work was done by Chloe Mashiter, who said she needed to get out of her system her pick for the fun thought experiment. Obviously it went viral on Twitter, with loads of people sharing the edit, along with saying that we “need” it. And… I wouldn’t not watch this, if I’m being honest.
What’s particularly great about this is how well she nails the Muppet casting here. I wouldn’t have thought about it right off the bat, but of course Ana de Armas’ Marta is Kermie. It’s perfect. Chris Evans' Ransom is Gonzo, Lakeith Stanfield is Rowlf the Dog, Michael Shannon is Rizzo the Rat, Jamie Lee Curtis is Miss Piggy, Christopher Plummer is Sam the Eagle, Katherine Langford is Janice and Toni Colette is Camilla the Chicken. That just about covers all of The Muppets cast, it’s kind of perfect.
The Knives Out cast were larger-than-life characters who were all in a fuss (fuzz if they were Muppets) about Daddy Drysdale’s inheritance money. It’d be hilarious to see some of those scenes play out with angry Muppets going at each other, especially when Ransom is pointing at everyone and telling them to “eat shit.” It’s a masterpiece waiting to happen, really…
Lionsgate even took notice of the edit and retweeted it with the comment “wow, you did it. you really did it.” Technically The Muppets is associated with Disney now rather than Lionsgate, but we love the idea of the Rian Johnson whodunnit getting the Muppets treatment. Although the edit is just for fun, Knives Out is going to continue with another mystery starring Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc.
Shortly after the movie found box office success, it was greenlighted for a followup that Rian Johnson is planning to write and direct. It’ll be a brand new mystery (we have some ideas) with a new roster of talent. No release date on the next Knives Out movie has been slated yet, but check out what’s coming out this year with CinemaBlend’s 2021 release schedule.
