Netflix's Knives Out/Sesame Street Crossover Homages One Of The Best Murder Mysteries Ever

For years, a vocal minority of film lovers on the internet have been trying to convince writer/director Rian Johnson to make a movie in which his private detective character from the "Knives Out" trilogy, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), stars as the only human actor and has only Muppets for co-stars. First there were viral tweets, and then Johnson told Netflix's Tudum in 2022 that he thought the joke was "pretty brilliant" and he "ended up really giving [it] some serious thought." The concept makes a certain amount of sense, especially given that Johnson already hired Frank Oz, the voice of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Yoda, to play a small role in the first "Knives Out" film. 

A full feature-length crossover has yet to materialize, but now that Netflix, the streamer behind the "Knives Out" sequels "Glass Onion" and "Wake Up Dead Man," is also the home of "Sesame Street," someone there thought it would be fun to give audiences the next best thing and create a short crossover called "Forks Out," in which a Muppet version of Daniel Craig (called "Beignet Blanc" here) solves the mystery of Cookie Monster's missing pie. It's just as adorable as you'd expect, and hilariously, it takes its ending from one of the best murder mysteries of all time: Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express."

Spoilers for that novel (and both film adaptations): The story finds literary detective Hercule Poirot trying to determine which train passenger killed their fellow rider ... only to discover that it wasn't just one suspect, but nearly all of them who stabbed the victim for various reasons too complex to get into here. It's one of the most famous endings in the history of the genre, and "Forks Out" puts a kid-friendly spin on a similar concept.

Back in 2022, Johnson told Tudum that Blanc and the Muppets just wouldn't mix: "I think those two things have very different rules. You can either have a Benoit Blanc mystery that has Muppets in it, but they'll feel out of place. Or you can have a Muppet movie that Benoit Blanc is in, but it'll feel like a Muppet movie."

Johnson's statement hasn't quieted the calls for an official crossover — if anything, more people than ever are expressing interest in seeing this happen. But just a few days ago, Johnson spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and threw cold water on the idea, seemingly once and for all:

"On the Internet, the notion of a 'Knives Out' Muppet movie comes up a lot, and I wanted to get you guys together here so that I could explain why that's a bad idea. It's not a 'bad idea,' but I love and respect Muppet movies too much, and also Benoit Blanc movies. They're so different. The reality is, if you put Muppets in a Benoit Blanc movie, it would feel totally wrong because they would be getting murdered. The alternative is to just stick Benoit Blanc into a Muppet movie, which admittedly would be very fun, but would kind of break the reality of what Blanc is. Which is all to say: I would just love to do a regular awesome Muppet movie!"

Johnson hasn't announced his next project yet, and though I'd love to see him tackle something wholly original again, I can't deny that I'd also be thrilled to see him make a full-blown Muppet movie if he has the opportunity.

"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" is in theaters now, and hits Netflix on December 12, 2025.