What could the Glass Onion be in ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery?’

The follow-up to the hit Rian Johnson mystery film, Knives Out will be released in December of 2022 on Netflix. The first film, which was released in 2019, starred Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc amongst a cast of characters who were under suspicion of killing the renowned author, Harlan Thrombey, played by the late Christopher Plummer. 

Daniel Craig will be returning for the sequel, which is titled Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The first film was called Knives Out because, in the film, Thrombey wrote a novel of the same name. With the title of the film having an in-universe explanation, let’s take a look at what ‘Glass Onion’ could possibly refer to in the sequel. 

What could the ‘Glass Onion’ be in the Knives Out sequel?

So far, the only official word we have had on the title is back when the writer and director of both films, Rian Johnson, first shared the title on Twitter, which you can see for yourself above. He compares his mystery world to the world of Agatha Christie, which we have recently seen adaptations of with Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. All of those mysteries were not named after a central figure, even though they followed the same detective, Hercule Poirot. Therefore, as they were named after things that occurred in the novel, Johnson named his film after a book, Knives Out. So, what could Glass Onion be named after?

While it is possible that ‘Glass Onion’ could be referring to a place, it seems unlikely that Johnson would go down that path after naming the first film after an item. So, there is a solid chance that Glass Onion is named after an item introduced in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. But, what could that item be? Could it be another book? That might not make sense seeing as the author of Knives Out died in the first film. 

The secret to what the item might be could lie in the cast of characters in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. While we have known the cast of the film for a while now, we have only recently learned more things about the characters themselves. Among the list of characters are Miles Bron, a tech billionaire played by Edward Norton, Cassandra ‘Andi’ Brand, a tech entrepreneur played by Janelle Monáe, Claire Debella, a Connecticut governor who is running to be a senator played by Kathryn Hahn, Birdie Jay, a fashion designer played by Kate Hudson and Duke Cody, a YouTube star played by Dave Bautista. 

It is plausible that the ‘Glass Onion’ has something to do with one of the characters. For example, it could be a piece of technology that Miles Bron or Andi Brand created, it could be a fancy dress that was created by Birdie Jay or even the name of Duke Cody’s YouTube channel. The film will see the stars flock to Miles Bron’s private island, so it could even be the nickname for the island or something on the island like an estate. 

Although, for some reason taking a ‘Glass Onion’ literally, the first thing that comes to mind is a sort of prized possession, kind of like a Fabergé egg. So maybe the ‘Glass Onion’ is some intricate decoration that is auctioned off in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. After all those characters all seem obnoxiously wealthy, so we could very well be on the right track with this line of thought.

It is worth mentioning that perhaps the most famous use of ‘Glass Onion’ in popular culture was by The Beatles on their White Album. John Lennon wrote a song called Glass Onion and by his own admission, he wrote the song to confuse fans, who often read too deeply into the lyrics of their songs. So, ‘Glass Onion’ could have something to do with The Beatles in the film, maybe one of the characters has an extremely rare copy of the White Album or some original recordings. 

Or, this could just be exactly what Rian Johnson wants. Maybe he gets a kick out of having fans rack their brains trying to uncover the mystery of the film’s name before it releases. Any one of these options could end up being what the ‘Glass Onion’ refers to in the name of the film, but we will have to wait and see for official confirmation, which most likely will not be released until the film has been released. 

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will have a limited theatrical release in November before coming to Netflix in December 2022.