Knives Out 3: Rian Johnson Gives Update on Daniel Craig’s Next Murder Mystery Movie

Rian Johnson has resumed working on Knives Out 3 now that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike has ended.

Speaking with The Wrap, Johnson said he’s resuming work on a third Knives Out movie with Daniel Craig given that the WGA strike for better pay, protection against AI, and more ended on September 27, 2023.

“It’s coming along,” he said. “I obviously couldn’t work during the strike, and now that it’s over, I’m diving in full force, and so it’s coming along. I’ve got the premise, I’ve got the setting, I’ve got what the movie is in my head. It’s just a matter of writing the damn thing.”

Written and directed by Johnson, Knives Out released in 2019. The film sees Craig play a lively private detective named Benoit Blanc who must figure out who murdered Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), a wealthy crime novelist who had just turned 85. Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, and Jaeden Martell also star in the movie.

A sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, followed in 2022. Having only a limited theatrical release before it began streaming on Netflix, the movie was once again written and directed by Johnson and saw Craig reprise the role of Blanc. He was joined by Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, and Madelyn Cline.

Rian Johnson wants to keep making Knives Out movies

When Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2022, Johnson said he plans to continue making more Knives Out sequels for as long as he’s able to. “I’m going to keep making these until Daniel blocks me on his phone,” he commented, via Variety.

Johnson also told Variety in January 2023, “We make these movies as entertainment first and foremost. What was exciting about doing [‘Glass Onion’] was the notion of trying to emulate Christie with a completely new story. I’m starting to work on the third movie now, and that’s also what’s got me creatively jazzed: I don’t have to replicate the last movie at all. The goal is to strike out in a completely new direction tonally and thematically.”