Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Netflix Release Date Set for December 23

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery release date is here. The sequel to writer-director Rian Johnson's Knives Out will release December 23 on Netflix, the world's biggest subscription-based video streaming service announced late Monday. Though you can catch Daniel Craig's detective Benoit Blanc prior to that if you are lucky. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is set to premiere in September at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, and will be released in select theatres internationally — not in India — in November prior to the Netflix rollout. Netflix is reportedly considering a 45-day theatrical window for certain movies, starting with Glass Onion.

Alongside the December release date announcement, Netflix has unveiled two new stills from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, one with most of the cast members and the second a behind-the-scenes shot of Johnson. While Netflix is terming it a “first look”, we got that back in February to be honest.

In addition to Craig, Glass Onion stars Edward Norton (Fight Club), Janelle Monáe (Hidden Figures), Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision), Leslie Odom Jr. (One Night in Miami), Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist), Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks), Kate Hudson (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), Dave Bautista (Army of the Dead), and Ethan Hawke (Before Sunrise). Netflix has also revealed that Norton plays tech billionaire Miles Bron on Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

Rian Johnson with Janelle Monáe on the sets of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Photo Credit: Netflix

And we also have a synopsis for the Knives Out sequel: “When tech billionaire Miles Bron invites some of his nearest and dearest for a getaway on his private Greek island, it soon becomes clear that all is not perfect in paradise. And when someone turns up dead, well, who better than Benoit Blanc to peel back the layers of intrigue?” Johnson teased that Glass Onion would place a bigger emphasis on Craig's detective character than the first film, and the inspirations behind the Mediterranean setting — the Knives Out sequel is set in Greece — for his next movie.

“You definitely get to know him a little bit better,” Johnson said. “In the first one, because of the way it was structured, Marta, Ana de Armas' character, was very much the protagonist. In a big way, Blanc was the threat. He was almost the antagonist in terms of just the story structure, because you were worried, even as they got closer, that he was going to catch her and he was going to have to turn her over at the end. So Blanc was always outside of the sphere of our protagonist and was a little bit more of an enigma in the first movie. Whereas, in this one, Blanc gets an invitation to come to this murder mystery on this island. We're very much meeting these people and getting into this world through his eyes.”

Said Greek island happens to be the aforementioned billionaire's playground. To film it, Johnson landed in Porto Heli, Greece at Amazone's Villa 20, a nine-bedroom ultra-luxury estate that also served as a hotel for the ensemble cast and their families. Johnson felt it was the perfect location and added: “It felt like a summer vacation where we also made a movie.” The entirely different locale — Knives Out was set in gloomy Massachusetts in a creaky mansion — and the motley of new characters means Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will feel entirely unlike the first movie.

While the main inspiration for the Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer-director is still Agatha Christie — her detective character Hercule Poirot was part of nearly three dozen novels. “Every single time, she found a way into it that felt unique and fresh, and you could tell it was challenging her creatively,” Johnson said — he also looked at “tropical getaway murder mystery” films like 1982's Evil Under the Sun, and 1973's The Last of Sheila. In the latter, a group of glamorous socialites go on a pleasure cruise which turns sour. If that sounds a lot like Glass Onion, well, it is.

“There are absolutely some very clear inspirations that I took from it,” Johnson said. “First of all, it's structured around a group of friends, or frenemies, who all have a power dynamic with one of their successful friends. It begins with him sending an invitation for them to come and play this murder mystery game at this exotic locale. In The Last of Sheila, it's on his yacht, and everything ends up going horribly wrong. That is essentially how Glass Onion begins.”

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is out December 23 on Netflix.