'Knives Out' sequel will feature a whole new cast, except for Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig’s southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc will be the only returning character in the Knives Out sequel, writer-director Rian Johnson has confirmed.

Johnson described the new script he’s writing as “not really a Knives Out sequel” because Craig’s sleuth is the only element connecting the two stories.

The 46-year-old filmmaker discussed the project while chatting with The Devil All the Time director Antonio Campos for Interview magazine.

Read more: Campos on Devil All the Time and Brits dominating Hollywood

He said: “It’s been such a mindf***, because I sat on the idea for the first one for 10 years. And with this one, I’m starting with a blank page.

“It’s not really a Knives Out sequel. I need to come up with a title for it so I can stop calling it The Knives Out Sequel because it’s just Daniel Craig as the same detective with a totally new cast.”

The decision is in keeping with the great whodunnits of the past which inspired the movie — most notably the work of Agatha Christie.

It’s no surprise that the colourful Thrombey clan will not appear, given the fact the first film’s murder victim was their patriarch.

Read more: Bond delay allowed Craig to do Knives Out

However, many had hoped that Ana de Armas’s nurse Marta would return, having essentially served as the Watson to Blanc’s Holmes in the 2019 movie.

Talk of a sequel to Knives Out began almost immediately after the film’s release, with Lionsgate officially confirming the follow-up in February.

Knives Out was a major success for the studio, scooping $309m (£242m) at the global box office and nabbing a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the Oscars.

Johnson discussed his approach to the sequel in an interview earlier this year, discussing the way Christie “found a very different narrative way” into each of the Poirot mysteries.

Read more: Johnson defends Star Wars prequels

“There’s a trap you can get into when writing one of these which is to think in terms… to think the attractiveness of it is the cleverness of the solution. And I think that’s actually a trap,” he said.

Johnson added: “What’s actually satisfying is the same thing as any other movie, which is there’s a character you’ve been following that you care about, and you’re worried about them, and then at the end in a way that’s really satisfying, you come to a conclusion of their arc.”