The Biggest Mystery of All: Do You Need to Watch 'Knives Out' Before 'Glass Onion'?

We suspect a new whodunit is within reach — as it turns out, our suspicions are correct because Rian Johnson is back with a sequel to his universally acclaimed and Oscar-nominated 2019 film Knives Out.

The highly anticipated flick, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, follows beloved detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he travels to a private Greek island. While there, he encounters a diverse group of friends gathering at billionaire Miles Bron's (Edward Norton) titular estate for a so-called "murder mystery weekend."

The film officially hit Netflix on Dec. 23, and fans are eager to see Daniel Craig's fan-favorite detective return for yet another mystery. But, before we press play, we must know: Do you need to watch Knives Out before Glass Onion?

We could keep you waiting for the answer, but honestly, we want everyone to experience the new film as soon as possible. With that said, no, you do not need to watch Knives Out before Glass Onion. Aside from Daniel Craig reprising his role as Benoit Blanc, the second installment offers audiences a brand-new mystery, location, and cast that do not correlate with the 2019 flick.

Following the world premiere of Knives Out, filmmaker Rian Johnson revealed that he always envisioned it becoming a franchise of standalone sequels featuring Benoit Blanc investigating further mysteries. He noted that already had an idea for another film, and once Netflix jumped on board, the second and third films were officially approved.

"I'll tell you, the truth is I had such a great time working with Daniel Craig and I had so much fun doing this on every level, from writing it to making it," Rian told Uproxx at TIFF 2019. "I've never really been interested in doing sequels, but this, the idea of doing more of these with Daniel as his character, is not sequels. It's just what Agatha Christie did."

In February 2020, the writer-director told SiriusXM that when writing Glass Onion, he didn't approach it as a sequel.

"In my mind, I don't even think of it like a sequel," Rian said. "There's so many different things you can do with it. And that's what's fun about it. You look at Agatha Christie's books, and it's not like every single one is a mansion, a library, and a detective. Besides setting, she also explored a bunch of different subgenres. She found a very different narrative way into each of them."

Following the second film's limited theatrical run, Rian Johnson told Deadline that he's been thinking about Knives Out 3.

"It’s interesting. We structured the [Netflix deal] so that if I wanted to do something else next, I could. And I think everybody assumed I’d have a couple [of] other random ideas — unrelated projects — that I’ve been kicking around," he stated. "But, honestly, over the past couple of months, the most exciting creative thing to me right now is that third movie."

Rian added, "And so, I think I’m going to hop right into it. Not because of a contractual obligation, but, genuinely, that’s the shiny object I find my nose pointed toward right now. [It’s] the idea of figuring out how it can be completely different from this one as well as the first one.”

Daniel Craig also spoke with Deadline, telling the outlet that Rian seems "very excited about getting on with the next one ... He’s already got some ideas, and they sound to me to be really interesting, so I’m going to let him just get on with that."

Glass Onion is now streaming on Netflix.