Poker Face's mysterious Knives Out connection, explained

Natasha Lyonne-starrer Poker Face will be released on January 26, 2023, on Peacock. Interestingly, there is a connection between the upcoming mystery comedy-drama and the Knives Out franchise.

The show stars Natasha Lyonne, Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stephanie Hsu, David Castañeda, Adrien Brody, Danielle Macdonald, Dascha Polanco, Lil Rel Howery, Ellen Barkin, Chloë Sevigny, Jameela Jamil, Tim Meadows, Hong Chau, Simon Helberg, S. Epatha Merkerson, Judith Light, Tim Blake Nelson, Ron Perlman, and several others.

Four episodes will be released on January 26, and six more episodes will be released in six consecutive weeks. Poker Face will have ten episodes in total.

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Rian Johnson is the the brains behind both Poker Face and Knives Out

Director Rian Johnson, in a recent interview, described the uncanny connection between the two movies. In Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, there is a scene where Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc is seen playing Among Us with his friends.

His friends are none other than Stephen Sondheim, Angela Lansbury, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and, of course, Poker Face lead actress, Natasha Lyonne. Yes, Lyonne is playing the game as herself, but if you notice carefully, she is in her Poker Face getup. Not only that, but she is sitting in her trailer during the filming of the upcoming show.

In a recent interview with Variety, Rian Johnson revealed this secret relationship. He said,

"You ready for a real kind of reality twist? So in the cameo in ‘Glass Onion,’ she’s playing herself — but she’s in hair and makeup as Charlie in her trailer in between setups on the set on the set of Poker Face."

He continued,

"So in the world of ‘Glass Onion,’ ‘Poker Face’ is a show that his friend Natasha is shooting. It’s a twisted web that we weave."

So in the Glass Onion universe, Benoit Blanc will most likely be tuning into Peacock to watch his friend, Natasha Lyonne, in the murder mystery. Lyonne then explained how her friendship with Blanc came to be.

She said,

"Here’s the thing: Benoit Blanc needs friends, too. I get it. It’s a lonely life, to quote Bette Davis. Maybe I am just the type of Hunter S. Thompson figure he would be friends. Gosh, I don’t know, but I like it! I also feel like I’m not friends with enough fictional characters in real life, so it’s a relief for me to hear that Rian has crafted this friendship. I’m not sure exactly how it works, like, can I call him? Where is the line?"

The show has a huge star cast, and Johnson explained how hard it was to assemble the crew with everyone having a busy schedule. He wanted Maya Rudolph on the show too. Unfortunately, she already had other projects in hand.

He said,

"The casting process on these was insane, frankly, because we were really trying to get a movie star every single episode, and that’s really hard. There were plenty of actors where the schedule wasn’t going to work, we had them in mind or wanted to work with them and couldn’t figure it out. Maya Rudolph, I would have given my left arm to have in one of these episodes, but she was making her show at the time."

Rian Johnson, Ram Bergman, Natasha Lyonne, Nena Rodrigue, Nora Zuckerman, Lilla Zuckerman, and Iain B. MacDonald are credited as the show's executive producers.

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Poker Face is streaming on Peacock on January 26, 2023.