Daniel Craig’s Knives Out 3 Hit With Massive Delay
Rian Johnson is working on the latest film of his whodunnit Daniel Craig film franchise, Knives Out 3, but it’s possible that we may have to wait a little while to see it. In an interview with The Wrap, Johnson talked about some of his latest projects and said, “It’s coming along,” adding, “I obviously couldn’t work during the strike, and now that it’s over, I’m diving in full force, and so it’s coming along.” He also said, “I’ve got the premise, I’ve got the setting, I’ve got what the movie is in my head,” and, “It’s just a matter of writing the damn thing.”
Rian Johnson confirms his work on Knives Out 3 was delayed because of the WGA Strike.
The recent WGA strike finally came to an end as the Hollywood writer’s union reached agreeable terms with the studios represented by the AMPTP. While the strike was ongoing, members of the guild were not permitted to work on studio films per the union’s member stipulations.
Since Daniel Craig’s Knives Out 3 is firmly a studio project under the Netflix banner, Johnson wasn’t able to make any forward momentum on the project in recent months.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Johnson wasn’t thinking about where to take Daniel Craig’s detective Benoit Blanc next in Knives Out 3, as he clearly has done a lot of the work in his head. Now it’s just a matter of getting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to get a script banged out. Johnson is also an in-demand creative though, so he’s probably got plenty on his plate on top of coming up with the script for the next film in the series.
Since his final outing as James Bond in 2021’s No Time to Die, Daniel Craig has only starred in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in 2022.
The good news for Johnson is that there is a pretty big release window for Daniel Craig’s Knives Out 3, as Netflix simply announced its release sometime in 2024. However, there are other production delays that could come up in the near future, considering the SAG-AFTRA strike is still going on. Even if Johnson had the script done tomorrow, he wouldn’t be able to get a star-studded cast to begin filming until that strike is resolved as well.
Along with Daniel Craig, both of the previous two films in the franchise were stacked top to bottom with some of the best actors working in Hollywood. Undoubtedly, plenty of the actors that Johnson would be casting for Knives Out 3 would be members of SAG-AFTRA. Hopefully, the studios repped by AMPTP can accommodate the actors soon as well and come to similar terms as they did with the WGA.
“It’s coming along. I obviously couldn’t work during the strike, and now that it’s over, I’m diving in full force, and so it’s coming along. I’ve got the premise, I’ve got the setting, I’ve got what the movie is in my head. It’s just a matter of writing the damn thing.”
–Rian Johnson on Knives Out 3
Since his final outing as James Bond in 2021’s No Time to Die, Daniel Craig has only starred in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in 2022. While there’s no word on when he might start filming for Knives Out 3, Craig does have another film currently in the pipeline. Craig is set to star in the next film from director Luca Guadagnino titled Queer, which is based on the 1985 William S. Burroughs novel of the same name.
Daniel Craig will star in Queer with Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, and Henry Zaga. The film follows Craig’s character, Lee, as he flees to Mexico City and becomes infatuated with a discharged Navy serviceman. There is no release date announced at this time, but we’ll keep you updated on this and Knives Out 3 as more news comes out for either film.
