Rian Johnson has already gifted us with two killer whodunnits in Knives Out and Glass Onion. Now, his reign as a modern murder mystery maven continues with his new series, Poker Face, starring Natasha Lyonne as human lie detector Charlie Cale.
Poker Face is quite different from the Benoit Blanc films in terms of its structure, tone, and central character. But is there any connection between the two, beyond Johnson’s involvement and their murder mystery nature? Is there a world in which Charlie Cale and Benoit Blanc could team up?
‘Poker Face’ review: Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne deliver marvelous murder mystery mayhem
The short answer: No. Poker Face is a completely separate entity from Benoit Blanc’s adventures. Since Johnson was working on Glass Onion and Poker Face at the same time, he had to ensure that there was no overlap between the two projects so it wouldn’t look like one was copying the other. In a video call with Mashable, Poker Face‘s showrunners and executive producers Lilla and Nora Zuckerman explained how Poker Face almost (accidentally) shared some plot points with Glass Onion.
“When we were writing Poker Face, Rian was editing Glass Onion,” Lilla Zuckerman told Mashable. “So sometimes we would pitch things, and he would say, ‘No, let’s not do that.’ And now I realize it was because it was in Glass Onion.”
The two biggest elements that couldn’t be in Poker Face? A blackout and an ensuing gunshot. Those both occur in Glass Onion when Miles Bron (Edward Norton) attempts to create chaos and murder Helen Brand (Janelle Monáe).
However, the Poker Face writers’ room ended up being more involved in Glass Onion than originally anticipated. “Rian showed us cuts of [Glass Onion],” said Nora Zuckerman. “He basically used the writers’ room as a test audience.”
“[When we saw the film] I was like, ‘that’s why we couldn’t do a blackout, that’s why we couldn’t do the gunshot,” added Lilla Zuckerman. “But can you imagine a world where Charlie Cale met Benoit Blanc?”
It’s unlikely that that would ever happen, as Natasha Lyonne has a cameo as herself in Glass Onion, and longtime Johnson collaborator Noah Segan appears in different roles in both Glass Onion and Poker Face. However, since Natasha Lyonne exists in Benoit Blanc’s world, maybe he can sit back and enjoy Poker Face with the rest of us.
