‘Glass Onion’ Is Now on Netflix! Behind All the Star-Studded Cameos in ‘Knives Out’ Sequel
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This post contains spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is finally here!
On Friday, Netflix released writer-director Rian Johnson’s sequel to his 2019 whodunnit Knives Out, bringing Daniel Craig back as detective Benoit Blanc for a new adventure with a brand-new cast of characters.
The film also stars Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista. Beyond Craig’s supporting cast, Johnson also enlisted a significant number of stars for cameos throughout the film.
Read on to find out everything to know about each of the cameos Johnson included in his new murder mystery.
RELATED: Everything to Know About Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant’s cameo in Glass Onion makes for quite the reveal: when a box from billionaire Miles Bron (Norton) is delivered to Blanc’s flat, Grant answers the door, revealing that Blanc is living with a male partner.
“You are supposed to reflect life. And that [gay] relationship reflects people in my life,” Craig, 54, told The Sunday Times in a recent interview about the film’s reveal that his character is gay.
“It’s normal. But we don’t make a song and dance out of it. It just feels right,” the actor added.
Johnson told the Times that Blanc being gay “just made sense to Daniel and me,” but that it wasn’t meant to be something that was a big focus for the movie.
“We didn’t want to be coy or cute about it. We just wanted it to be a fact of the character,” explained Johnson, 48.
The late Angela Lansbury makes an appearance early in Glass Onion, when she is shown on a Zoom call with Blanc during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cameo honors Lansbury, who died in October at 96, and her mystery genre credentials dating back to her Murder, She Wrote heyday, as the group attempt to play the popular online mystery video game Among Us.
The late Stephen Sondheim, who died at 91 in Nov. 2021, also appears on the Zoom call with Blanc as he and a group embark on a game of Among Us.
“It means so much that they were in the movie,” Johnson told Entertainment Weekly in November of Sondheim and Lansbury’s cameos in the film. “It means even more to me that I got 10 minutes with each of them to just tell them what their work meant to me, which was very, very special.”
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“With Angela Lansbury, she’s extraordinary in so many ways in her connection to the genre,” Johnson added. “She’s just a hero. And then Sondheim has a massive connection to the murder-mystery genre. He was a puzzle and mystery nut.”
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Russian Doll star Natasha Lyonne also cameo in the film via the same Zoom call as the group play Among Us.
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke appears in just one scene in Glass Onion, as a mysterious man who greets Blanc and Bron’s guests at a dock in Greece on their way to the billionaire’s private island.
Hawke’s character, credited as Efficient Man, sprays a substance into the mouths of Bron’s guests that appears to inoculate recipients from COVID-19, telling them they no longer need to wear a mask as they board a boat to the island — or, as he simply explains to Blanc: “You’re good.”
Johnson told EW in November that Hawke’s cameo was not planned, but the actor was in Budapest, Hungary filming Moon Knight while Glass Onion was in production and traveled to Greece for one day to film the scene.
RELATED: Daniel Craig Says His Glass Onion Character Being Gay ‘Just Feels Right’: ‘It’s Normal’
Serena Williams
Tennis legend Serena Williams appears via a fitness application similar to a Mirror product placed on the wall of the gym in the mansion.
Williams’ cameo at first appears to be a pre-taped video for Norton’s character to work out to, but during a conversation between Craig and Monáe’s characters, Williams surprises as she asks the pair if either are going to work out, revealing a live feed that shows how Norton’s billionaire has Williams on retainer as a personal trainer.
Famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma appears in Glass Onion during an early scene at a party hosted by Birdie Jay (Hudson). The musician assists Jay in solving the mystery of Bron’s puzzling invite to his private island for the group’s get-together.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Only Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s voice appears in Glass Onion. In an uncredited voice cameo, the actor — who has appeared in each of Johnson’s films — provides the sounds for the hourly chime that rings on Bron’s private island throughout the movie.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is available to stream on Netflix now.
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