Who among us doesn’t love to solve a murder? Not a real one, of course. We’re speaking about the fictional murder mysteries that have been favorites of audiences since (reportedly) Edgar Allan Poe wrote the first one with The Murders in the Rue Morgue. But the modern murder mystery resurgence is due, in part, to writer and director Rian Johnson.
Yes, we’re talking about Chris Evans’ sweater, Daniel Craig’s ascots, and now Natasha Lyonne’s Plymoth Barracuda. Rian Johnson’s universe of murder mysteries is a delight for me, someone who loves to solve a murder case. I love his Knives Out series very much, in addition to my new obsession with Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in Johnson’s Poker Face mystery series on Peacock. Johnson is, in my humble opinion, the best doing it right now. His mysteries always leave me satisfied and wanting more of his work.
Introducing the world to Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc in both Knives Out and then the sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery has brought audiences such joy because we missed the whodunnit genre. We all love a detective trying to solve a case in the same way that Johnson seems to. But he is pushing the boundaries by bringing back the how-catch-ems like Columbo through Charlie Cale.
She’s not a detective like Benoit Blanc, so the way she finds cases to solve differs from what we’ve seen in the Knives Out world, but the two characters, who are incredibly different from one another, are our guides into these mysteries. So, now that Poker Face is gearing up to come out, fans of Johnson are wondering whether or not Charlie Cale is connected to Benoit Blanc and … well, it’s kind of complicated.
Are ‘Poker Face’ and ‘Knives Out’ connected, though?
Rian Johnson loves a murder mystery, which makes people want to know how they’re all connected to each other. It’s just what comes with the genre. But with Poker Face and the Knives Out movies, it isn’t really a simple yes or no answer. So, are they connected to one another?
Sort of! Poker Face clearly exists in the world of Knives Out because Natasha Lyonne is playing Among Us with Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion in a way that makes it seem as if Blanc has seen her take on Charlie Cale. At least, that was my reading on the scene. Whether or not that’s true is a question for Rian Johnson, not me, but it still connects the two in some way, if only tangentially.
They’re just not necessarily existing as Charlie Cale and Benoit Blanc in the same world, as far as we know. So sadly, we probably will never see Daniel Craig and his southern drawl along Charlie’s journey. But it would be funny if they let Daniel Craig guest star as himself like Natasha Lyonne did in Glass Onion.
Now, we all need to watch Poker Face when it airs on Peacock on January 26 so that we can get more seasons and hopefully make this happen for my own benefit!
(featured image: Peacock/Lionsgate)
