The Cast For "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" Is Stacked

Craig is back as Detective Benoit Blanc, aka "The Last of the Gentlemen Sleuths." Craig is the only actor from the first film who returns for the sequel. When the film screened at the London Film Festival earlier this fall, director Johnson confirmed that Blanc is queer — and always has been. "Yes, he obviously is," he said, according to Insider, referencing a specific scene in the film where Blanc has a male partner. "And there's nobody in the world I can imagine in bringing me more joy for Benoit Blanc to be with," he said of the actor who plays Blanc's partner.

Norton plays Miles Bron, a billionaire tech mogul. In the film, he invites his friends for a getaway to his private island, where things quickly get out of control. His private island is home to the titular glass onion.

Though Bron might remind audiences of some real-life tech billionaires, Johnson said he tried hard not to think about any real people when writing, "The fact that Bron's a tech billionaire — which made a lot of sense for the story — became an obstacle in the writing. Because — I don't think I even have to say the names — there are some obvious, real-world analogs. And the instant I started thinking about any of them too specifically, it got so boring so quickly. And so, disconnecting him from that, and trying to build him as his own kind of clownish character, became a challenge," he told Deadline in November.

Monáe plays Cassandra "Andi" Brand, Miles's former business partner. She and Miles are the center of the group of friends that gather in the film. "Andi's a leader. A gatherer. Very wealthy," she told Deadline of her character. She told the outlet she wanted to work with Johnson as soon as she saw his 2012 movie "Looper." "I was like, 'Rian is doing something super-innovative in the sci-fi genre, and if I ever get an opportunity to work with him, I don't care what it is, I'm saying yes,'" she recalled. Once she read the "Glass Onion" script, she was in.

Bautista plays Duke Cody, a men's rights activist, and online video maker. "If you're familiar with the first 'Knives Out,' you know it wasn't deeply emotional; it's not a deeply dramatic film," he told Polygon in May 2021. "But it was such a quirky film, and it was so interesting. It had such a great ensemble, like a talented cast. And Rian, I'm desperate to work with. So it's a lot of those factors. Although it's not down that dramatic path that I really love and that I'm pursuing, I feel like this is a huge statement because of the caliber of the people that are involved and how successful the first film was."

Cline, who's best known for her work in "Outer Banks," plays Duke's girlfriend, Whiskey. Cline told The Cut in December that she did a lot of research into the type of people Duke and Whiskey are, explaining, "I went down a very deep, dark rabbit hole of Dan Bilzerian parties and YouTube bodybuilders, like, 'Okay, this is who she's dating.'" She added of her character's style and attitude, "She never quite made it out of 2016." But she warns that Whiskey shouldn't be overlooked in this complicated puzzle box. "The funny thing about Whiskey is she's playing her own games," she told the outlet. "She's observing everybody around her. She has a façade as well."

Hudson plays Birdie Jay, a former model who's now a fashion designer. Johnson didn't write the role for her, but it seems the perfect one for the Fabletics founder. She told Vanity Fair in December, "I remember reading Birdie, and I was in my sweet spot. [I've] been waiting on the sideline. It's been hard. Because of the way my career has gone, the movies that I've wanted to make are not the movies that I've been getting. And so with Rian, it was really like, 'If you just put me in the game, I know I can deliver the goods for you.'"

She added, "I could see her body language. For someone like me who loves comedy—but has been in a lot of movies where that hasn't been honored, or maybe edited, or directed as you would have hoped—being in the hands of someone like Rian Johnson, I feel so lucky that he chose me."

Henwick plays Peg, Birdie's harried assistant. The actor told Entertainment Weekly in November that she based her part on her own experiences as a harried Hollywood production assistant. "I've been a P.A., so I knew what it was like," she said. "I quit. I walked off. I was like, I'm done.'"

"I tried to capture that feeling that I had that day," she explained of her work in the film. "That's how Peg feels every single day. Just right on the verge of quitting. 'Why am I doing this?' But also she just can't get out of it, because she loves and is reliant on Birdie. It's a very interesting, fascinating relationship. Super co-dependent. We don't get to see women in this relationship very often on screen."

It seems that Odom Jr. is looking to expand his murder-mystery repertoire with "Knives Out 2." He plays Lionel Toussaint, the head scientist at Miles's company. Odom Jr. has experience with mysteries and crime dramas — he was previously seen as Dr. Arbuthnot in 2017's "Murder on the Orient Express," Maliko Christo in "Vanished," Peter Collier in "Person of Interest," and Reverend Curtis Scott in "Law & Order: SVU."

Odom Jr. told Indiewire about his character's dilemmas in the movie, "Part of the tension of him at the top of this film is because he is so close to achieving something that would honor his years of study and the things that he cares about most, but he is aligned with someone that is duplicitous, and that is manipulative and very wealthy and someone who pulls the strings." He added, "A lot of us find ourselves in that situation in the real world. There's a lot of tension in the relationship dynamics at the top of this movie."

Hahn plays Claire Debella, a politician who's running for Senate. "Claire has a very limited palette, which is beige," the actor told Movie Web in November about her character's wardrobe. "But I think that makes her stand out. And it's also what I love about her. Within this very narrow confine, visually, I had a lot of freedom to play, which was really fun."

She praised Johnson's twisting and turning script and added, "My hope is that people can really go into this knowing as little or nothing about the film. Because that's when it's the most fun. And I just hope people can keep it to themselves so that others can be as surprised when they watch it."