Knives Out 2 won't be a direct sequel

'Knives Out 2' won't be a direct sequel, but will star Daniel Craig.

The 51-year-old actor starred as Benoit Blanc in the 2019 mystery movie, and after the production got the green light for a sequel, director and writer Rian Johnson has said the second movie will not directly follow on from the events of the first film, but will instead see a brand new mystery for the detective to solve.

Rian told SiriusXM: "In my mind, I don't even think of it in terms of like a sequel ... Ever since we started working on this I was like, look, if we can keep this going, the same way Agatha Christie wrote a bunch of Poirot novels.

"I mean, do that with Blanc and keep making more mysteries. Whole new cast, whole new location, whole new mystery. It's just another Benoit Blanc mystery and it seems like there's just so many different things you can do with it, you know? It seems like it'd be really fun."

The 46-year-old filmmaker is keen to establish a franchise with the Benoit Blanc character, and joked the second movie could even be set in "space".

A sequel for 'Knives Out' was confirmed by Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer earlier this week, following the success of the first movie, which is getting close to hitting the $300 million worldwide gross mark.

And Rian - who earned an Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination for the script - previously said he would love to return for a second movie.

He said: "I had such a good time making it, such a great time working with Daniel, and now just seeing that audiences are responding to it, the idea of continuing it on seems like it would just be a blast.

"But there's a lot that has to happen before that can happen, first and foremost being writing a script. So, we'll see."