After scoring an Oscar nomination for his role in One Night in Miami, Leslie Odom Jr. has booked his next role, joining the star-studded call sheet of Rian Johnson’ Knives Out sequel.
Odom will join fellow franchise newcomers Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista and Edward Norton, as well as returning star Daniel Craig.
Plot details are being kept zipped up in a bodybag, but the follow-up is due to shoot this summer in Greece and will be another big-name ensemble murder mystery anchored by Craig’s enigmatic Southern detective Benoit Blanc.
Netflix, which took over the franchise from MRC and Lionsgate, had no comment on the casting.
Johnson wrote the script, will direct, and is also producing with Ram Bergman under their T-Street banner.
Knives Out was released via Lionsgate in 2019, taking in $311.4 million at the box office on a $40 million budget. Johnson, who earned a 2020 Oscar nomination for the Knives Out screenplay, told The Hollywood Reporter he began work on the script shortly after the first film was released.
In a massive $469 million deal, Netflix won the rights for two sequels and a readymade franchise. The only contingencies of the deal were that Craig must star in the sequels and that each must have at least the budget of the 2019 movie.
Odom Jr. earned two Oscar nominations — supporting actor and original song — for his role in Regina King’s directorial debut. Upcoming projects include New Line’s Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark and John Ridley’s sci-fi feature Needle in a Timestack. He first broke out in the theatre world when he won a Tony for portraying Aaron Burr in Hamilton.
He is repped by CAA, Untitled, and Jackoway Austen.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
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