Knives Out 2 decides not to wait for it, adds Leslie Odom Jr.

By Sam Barsanti | May 18, 2021 | 7:56pm

Film Features Leslie Odom Jr.

Knives Out 2 decides not to wait for it, adds Leslie Odom Jr.

Leslie Odom Jr. Photo: Chris Pizzello-Pool

Last week, inspired by the daily string of excellent Knives Out 2 casting announcements, The A.V. Club got together and we made our own—all excellent—pitches for who should be in Rian Johnson’s whodunnit sequel. However, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Johnson’s latest offer went to someone we didn’t think of: Leslie Odom Jr., fresh off of an Oscar nomination for his work in One Night In Miami (and also he was apparently in something called Hamilton). He’ll be joining, in reverse order of when they were announced, Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, and Daniel Craig (who, as far as we know at this point, will be the only returning character from the first movie). This casting also debunks our theory that Johnson was specifically picking up people who had been in Marvel movies, as up until now Craig and Monáe were the only ones who had never met Iron Man, so that was apparently just a statistical inevitability caused by how many actors have been in Marvel movies and not a conscious decision.

We don’t know who Leslie Odom Jr. might be playing in the movie, because we know nothing about the movie, but previous casting announcements have mentioned that production is starting in Greece soon and we’ve been operating under the assumption that the movie will be about Craig’s Benoit Blanc going on a vacation and accidentally stumbling onto another murder mystery (the sort of plot, in other words, that might pop up on something like Monk). What we do know is that Netflix paid a ton of money to get two Knives Out sequels, so this movie will eventually be heading to that platform when it does get made.