Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will bring down the curtain on the 66th edition of the BFI London Film Festival, the organisers announced Wednesday.
The screening at the gala, which opens October 5, will be attended by Johnson alongside cast members including Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Leslie Odom Jr, Kate Hudson and Madelyn Cline, with more to be confirmed.
Knives Out 2 will receive its European premiere on October 16 at the Southbank Centre in the Royal Festival Hall, London, ahead of its release into UK cinemas and subsequent launch on Netflix.
The BFI London Film Festival hosted the European premiere of the first Knives Out at the festival in 2019.
Johnson, also the writer and producer of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, said he is excited about his return to the film extravaganza.
“I’m thrilled to be back at LFF with Glass Onion, and it’s an honour to be closing the festival. A proper whodunnit really does belong in London, so it feels a bit like coming home!” the director said in a statement.
The much-anticipated part two of the hit murder mystery film will see Craig reprise his role of the master sleuth Benoit Blanc.
Ethan Hawke, Dave Bautista, Norton, Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Odom Jr, Hudson, Cline and Jessica Henwick are the new cast members.
Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival director, said the audience at the Knives Out festival premiere in 2019 had “adored” the film’s wit and that it tipped its very stylish hat to the wonderful tradition of British on-screen sleuths.
“And here, Rian Johnson strikes gold again with the help of the year’s hottest ensemble cast. Like its predecessor, Glass Onion is entertaining and culturally literate in equal measure, making some hilarious, razor-sharp observations about the world we live in. The European premiere of the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will bring the house down as the closing gala of the 66th BFI London Film Festival!” added Tuttle.
It was previously announced that Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical, starring Lashana Lynch and Emma Thompson, will open the festival.
