If you go to your local library and pick up an Agatha Christie novel from the shelf, you probably already have a vague idea of what’s in store. There will be a murder (or 5), everyone will look suspicious at one point or another, and an eccentric Frenchman will figure it all out in the end. It would be weird (and a little insulting) if they all had to be called something like Death On The Nile: A Murder On The Orient Express Mystery, right?
Die-hard Christie fan Rian Johnson certainly seems to think so. Speaking to The Atlantic about the title of his new whodunit, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the director bemoaned the fact that modern audiences apparently can’t be trusted to solve the mystery of which 2019 blockbuster this new film that just happens to be in the same genre with the same director and the same star could possibly be connected to.
“I’ve tried hard to make them self-contained,” he said of the two films. “Honestly, I’m pissed off that we have A Knives Out Mystery in the title. You know? I want it to just be called Glass Onion.”
He continued: “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.”
Luckily for fans of Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc (and his wild accent), Johnson isn’t opposed to making more sequels—even if he has to give them all the same unwieldy title. “If each one of these can really be what Agatha Christie did, if it can be not just in a totally new location and a new cast, but also trying something exciting, I’ll keep doing it as long as Daniel [Craig] and I are having a good time. I’ll keep making these as long as they let me,” he told Variety back in October.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is now streaming on Netflix.