Rian Johnson Is ‘Pissed Off’ By ‘Glass Onion’s Subtitle

The #1 movie on Netflix right now is Glass Onion, Rian Johnson’s follow-up to his hit mystery film Knives Out. Pointedly, the movie is not called Knives Out 2. It does feature Daniel Craig as master detective Benoit Blanc, but otherwise Glass Onion has a totally different cast of characters amidst a totally different mystery. Technically, you could watch the two movies in either order and it would make very little difference.

Still, Knives Out came first, and became the surprise smash that convinced Netflix to pony up several hundred million dollars for two follow-ups. Naturally, they want people to know that Glass Onion is connected to Knives Out, and so the film’s official title is technically Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. According to Johnson in an interview with The Atlantic, that was a decision that left him “pissed off” because he “tried hard to make [the films] self-contained.”

As he put it…

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. 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.

What an eloquent way of summarizing an entirely depressing sentiment! Still, I suppose a needless subtitle is a small price to pay for a really good movie — and potentially an ongoing series of really good movies. And Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is still a better title than Knives Out 2: Glass Onion.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is now streaming on Netflix.