'Knives Out 2' Has Apparently, And Sneakily, Added Ethan Hawke To The Cast
Well, well, well. Rian Johnson, you sneaky devil. While we already have a long list of cast members for Knives Out 2, it seems like we don't know the whole story yet. The Netflix-bound sequel is currently filming in Greece, and recently released set pics reveal that Academy Award-nominee and all-around welcome presence Ethan Hawke is in the film, too. Unless this is all a coincidence and Ethan Hawke just happened to be in Greece and then wander into the middle of a scene being filmed. Which sounds unlikely, but not impossible. You never know where Ethan Hawke is going to turn up.
The Daily Mail has some set pics from Knives Out 2, and they reveal a ponytail-sporting Ethan Hawke on set, pointing a weird-looking gun at Dave Bautista. We already knew Bautista was in the star-studded film, but Hawke's casting has yet to be officially announced. Which means there is an extremely tiny chance he's not in the movie at all, but c'mon, he is.
The Hawke set pics are just the latest to emerge from the film's production, which kicked off in Greece yesterday and gave us a fancy new look for Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc. In addition to Craig, Bautista, and Hawke, Knives Out 2 also features Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Madelyn Cline, and Jessica Henwick. And now you have to wonder if there are other unannounced cast members waiting in the wings. Who knows what secrets director Rian Johnson has up his sleeve?
What is Knives Out 2 About?
The set pics released so far show the actors climbing aboard some sort of pleasure cruise, which makes me wonder if Johnson is going full Hercule Poirot here and setting the entire film on some sort of boat. That would be amusing and serve as a bit of a send-up of the delayed Death on the Nile, Kenneth Branagh's next Poirot movie which is set on a cruise down the Nile River.
But that's all speculation on my part. In any case, Knives Out 2 (which won't be called Knives Out 2) is the first of two sequels Johnson and Craig will make. Johnson signed a huge deal with Netflix for the two sequels, with the stipulation that the upcoming films both have Craig as Benoit Blanc, and that both films "must have at least the budget of the 2019 movie, which was in the $40 million range." Beyond that, though, the specific details of Knives Out 2 and Knives Out 3 remain a mystery.