Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery follows in the first movie's footsteps by assembling an all-star cast to tell its murder mystery story, though this aspect also provides the sequel with its biggest flaw. Glass Onion centers on Benoit Blanc, again played by Daniel Craig, as he investigates murder and chaos on a private island owned by Edward Norton's tech billionaire, Miles Bron. The rest of the star-studded cast includes Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, and Kathryn Hahn.
Knives Out's cast consists of Christopher Plummer, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Jaedan Martell, and Katherine Langford surrounding Craig. That first installment clearly has a marginally larger ensemble and also contains some of the biggest names of Hollywood's past and present. While Glass Onion has a very talented cast as well, the first Knives Out is more of an ensemble effort where each member of the cast has their moment to shine in support of the whole. In contrast, Glass Onion is focused more on individual standout performances, which faults the sequel by being less cohesive in comparison.
Why Glass Onion's Cast Can't Beat Knives Out
Glass Onion's cast cannot beat Knives Out's simply because of the way the sequel is written. Rian Johnson's first installment follows the traditional murder mystery formula more closely, despite also subverting the genre, giving its huge cast more opportunity to shine. From the fantastically written and edited interview sequences at the beginning of Knives Out to the many scenes in which every cast member is together and riffing off one another, the first movie's cast members each have their own individual moments of brilliance while also functioning as a piece of the ensemble.
This is because Johnson wrote Knives Out's characters as one family, with the death of the patriarch causing them to come together in ways that highlight their individual talents. Glass Onion, on the other hand, takes strides to still be a murder mystery movie yet with enough differences from its predecessor to feel fresh. One of the sequel's changes from the original's formula is an increased focus on specific characters, with Janelle Monáe being the most prominent standout. Monáe and Craig are given the most to do in Glass Onion, which is markedly divergent from the way the first Knives Out spreads its screen time among the different characters.
Glass Onion's Cast Is Still Great, Despite Not Beating Knives Out
The main cast assembled for the cameo-filled Glass Onion is still fantastic despite this one flaw. While Janelle Monáe and Daniel Craig are certainly the standouts, the other actors also deliver fantastic performances even if they're not given as much equal focus as the players in the first Knives Out. Dave Bautista steals scenes as Duke Cody, a controversial Twitch streamer, and Madelyn Cline and Kate Hudson do a tremendous job emulating typical murder mystery tropes. Overall, for their parts in the plot, the cast of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is still in top form, even if it cannot quite match the standard set by the original.