Glass Onion director Rian Johnson says he’s ‘pissed off’ over Knives Out title

Rian Johnson has revealed why he felt unhappy about the title of his new film, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

The director explained that he wasn’t keen on having “Knives Out” included in the title of the sequel to 2019’s hit film, adding that he has tried very hard to make the follow-up “self-contained”.

“I’ve tried hard to make it self-contained. Honestly, I’m pissed off that we have A Knives Out Mystery in the title,” the 49-year-old told The Atlantic in an interview. “I want it to just be called Glass Onion.

“I get it, and I want everyone who liked the first movie to know this is next in the series, but also, the whole appeal to me is it’s a new novel off the shelf every time,” he added. “But there’s a gravity of a thousand suns toward serialised storytelling.”

Last week, Johnson also defended Star Wars: The Last Jedi from criticism about the use of comedy in the film.

Johnson referred to a scene where General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) attempts to frighten Po Dameron (Oscar Isaac) by telling him over an intercom he is “doomed”. However, after a pause, Po quips: “OK, I’ll hold.”

While Star Wars fans expressed that they don’t see the point of this scene in the franchise, Johnson disagreed, calling it “essentially Star Wars”.

“For me, everything in the movie is Star Wars, and everything in the movie I can trace back to deeply, in a deep way, what Star Wars is for me,” he told GQ. “Everyone has a different take”

He continued: “I know there are Star Wars fans who somehow think that Star Wars was a serious thing, like the Batman movies or something. I was so young that when I watched Empire Strikes Back, it had this deep, profound impact on me, because it was terrifying, because I was just young enough to not experience it as watching a Star Wars movie, but to have it feel like too real.”

Johnson used a Return of the Jedi scene as an example, stating: “Anyone who thinks that slightly goofy humour does not have a place in the Star Wars universe, I don’t know if they’ve seen Return of The Jedi.

He also cited a moment from the first film, which was released in 1976, to back up his point.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is available to stream on Netflix. Read The Independent’s review of it here. You can also read our inteview with Glass Onion star Kate Hudson.