Rian Johnson says he hopes he can change the titles of his film KNIVES OUT to A BENOIT BLANC MYSTERY Moving forward

This month, director Rian Johnson delivered another incredible murder mystery to fans with the sequel Glass onion: a knife-edged mystery. After the first movie, Knives out, which premiered in theaters, Johnson quickly signed a deal with Netflix, which agreed to a second and third film in the series, and possibly more. These promised to take on a brand new star-studded cast each time and tell a new whodunnit-style story with the same spirit, as well as the same detective, as the first.

Johnson accepted, as he did Daniel Craig, who plays Southern charmer Detective Benoit Blanc in the photos. But the only hiccup in the plan was that Netflix wanted to make sure the two films were connected, so fans could be sure they recognized the franchise. The first film was about the knife collection at Harlan Thrombey’s home, and a knife served as the murder weapon in his death, so the title made sense.

The second movie, Glass Onion, referring to the bar the group of friends frequented when they met, and the estate on Miles Bron’s Island features a glass-domed building that’s also named after it. But when the film was released, in an attempt to connect the two films, Netflix decided to add “A Knives Out Mystery” to the sequel. This really frustrated the director, like the name Knives out it is unrelated to this or future stories in the franchise.

But he understands why they did it. Johnson explained on The Filmcast podcast (via /Film):

“The thing is, I totally get it. It’s not like it was done against my will or anything like that. I totally get it. Because after the first movie, I think people knew they liked ‘Knives Out’ [but] they didn’t necessarily know him well enough to know who Benoit Blanc was. I think he would get blank stares. And I wanted everyone who loved “Knives Out” to know about it [‘Glass Onion’] it’s the next of those. So I absolutely 100% agreed and totally understood that we had to do this. But it also kills me a little and I want to see how quickly we can lose that sub.”

He explained his idea going forward:

“As soon as we get past those and get to ‘A Benoit Blanc Mystery’…and I will say, by that, with the reach of Netflix and how many other people I feel like I’ve seen it and how much more it feels like it’s actually in the culture, at least we’re getting close to getting away with ‘A Benoit Blanc Mystery’ and people would know what we’re talking about.”

I think with how many people have seen and loved the first two movies, this is a great way forward. Daniel Craig is as attached to these films as he is to his 007 films, and I can’t wait to see more released under the Benoit Blanc Mystery banner.