Lionsgate Studios held their annual 3rd quarter earning report, and CEO Jon Feltheimer officially announced the studio has green lit Knives Out 2, a sequel to Rian Johnson’s smash hit, Knives Out. Johnson said he hopes a series like this would follow the exploits of KFCNCIS detective Benoit Blanc and his sleuthing adventures.

Knives Out earned a hefty sum of $294 million world wide. The total split evenly between domestic and overseas totals. While his previous film, the Last Jedi made $1.3 billion internationally, but it proved a divisive movie that split the Star Wars fan base.

Knives Out 2 Remains Unwritten

As of this announcement Rian Johnson says the script remains unwritten. While the script writing was sharp enough to earn Rian his first Oscar nomination for best script, it was the stellar cast that made Knives Out so great. Daniel Craig finishes up his stint as James Bond with the forthcoming No Time To Die, so his schedule should line up with what Johnson likes to do.

“I had such a good time making it, such a great time working with Daniel, and now just seeing that audiences are responding to it, the idea of continuing it on seems like it would just be a blast,” the director told Deadline on Oscar nomination day. “But there’s a lot that has to happen before that can happen, first and foremost being writing a script. So, we’ll see.”

Rian Johnson DEADLINE

What About the Galaxy Far Far Away?

Kathleen Kennedy; The Last Jedi; Lucasfilm
What appears to be an awkward moment between Carrie Fisher, Rian Johnson, Mark Hamill, and KAthleen Kennedy on the set of The Last Jedi. (Image: Annie Liebovitz for Vanity Fair.)

Now, Knives Out 2 is great, The one question this begs is what about his Star Wars future? Kennedy said Rian would create and helm his own trilogy. Rian stated he still works on it, yet word remains non existent. Neither Johnson nor Disney has given a release date for films. Granted right now Disney seems happy to ignore the movie universe all together. They have stated they are focusing on Disney+ given their recent smash The Mandalorian.

Time may be needed to let hot heads in the fandom cool off. Never has it been suggested Rian would lead off the next Star Wars movies. The lack of work isn’t too surprising at this point. Given the current slate and the altering of releases with Avatar, Rian’s Star Wars saga could be 8-10 years off IF it happens.

Until then, a Knives Out sequel will be a welcome sequel to tide us over.