Janelle Monae is the latest A-lister to be enlisted for the Knives Out sequel.
She is in talks to join what will be a starry ensemble for the Rian Johnson-directed whodunit, which has Edward Norton and Dave Bautista circling roles. The original Knives Out starred Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, and Toni Collette.
Plot details are being kept under wraps but the follow-up will be another star-studded murder mystery anchored by Daniel Craig’s enigmatic southern detective Benoit Blanc.
Netflix had no comment on the casting.
Johnson will return to direct and is also producing with Ram Bergman under their T-Street banner. The movie is set to start shooting this summer in Greece.
Knives Out was released via Lionsgate in 2019, garnering an Oscar nomination and $311.4 million at the box office on a $40 million budget. Johnson, who earned a 2020 Oscar nomination for the Knives Out screenplay, told THR he began work on the script shortly after the first film was released.
In a massive $469 million deal, Netflix won the rights for two sequels and a readymade franchise. The only contingencies of the deal were that Craig must star in the sequels and that each must have at least the budget of the 2019 movie, which was in the $40 million range.
Monae, repped by WME, Wondaland and Ziffren Brittenham, was last seen in Lionsgate feature Antebellum and Amazon’s The Glorias.
This story was originally published in The Hollywood Reporter.
