The internet loves a Muppet mashup. Once Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery dropped, people started speculating about the next Benoit Blanc movie. And why not make it a Muppet movie? After all, they’ve participated in capers before. The idea made it to writer-director Rian Johnson and, in a semi-serious conversation with Tudum, he seems to have given the idea a lot of thought. Netflix even put together the mashup images below. For the record, we would totally watch a Benoit Blanc Muppets team-up film.
Johnson said:
I think those two things have very different rules. You can either have a Benoit Blanc mystery that has Muppets in it, but they’ll feel out of place. Or you can have a Muppet movie that Benoit Blanc is in, but it’ll feel like a Muppet movie.
So far, we’ve only seen Blanc solve murder mysteries, but that doesn’t mean it’s all he’s capable of. The well-dressed detective would fit right into the next Muppet caper, pirate adventure, Dickensian musical, or journey to space. The Muppets and Rian Johnson’s whodunnit movies actually have a lot in common, what with those large casts and celebrity cameos.
Getting Disney and Netflix to play together may not be as simple. But Waldorf and Statler did appear in a Saturday Night Live sketch, so maybe there’s hope. And while the Knives Out-style murder mystery route could be a little macabre for the Muppets, many of them have appeared as ghosts already, in Muppets Haunted Mansion.
Johnson also already has a relationship with Frank Oz, directing him in The Last Jedi and Knives Out. So even if a full Knives Out Muppets mashup doesn’t happen, hopefully it at least leads to Benoit Blanc solving mysteries on an episode of Sesame Street. If Brett Goldstein can teach kids the “F” word (fairness), Daniel Craig can certainly make a dapper appearance and solve some cases—outrageous Southern accent optional.
We love the many Muppet crossovers we’ve seen over the years, like national parks posters and The Lord of the Rings trailers. Even if we never get a Benoit Blanc Muppets murder mystery, we can’t wait for more Blanc movies. We’d also love to see Rian Johnson direct a Muppet movie.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. Her favorite Muppet is Pepe the King Prawn! Melissa also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
