Beginning in December 2022, fans of The Muppets as well as Rian Johnson’s detective Benoiot Blanc, played by Daniel Craig in Knives Out and Glass Onion, began a fan campaign for a Muppets / Benoit Blanc crossover.
If there is never a Benoit Blanc / Muppets crossover film it will be the worst missed opportunity of our generation https://t.co/nxFLe8TbGQ
— Becka Wall (@beckawall) December 30, 2022
Clamor for this crossover reached such a fever pitch Director Rian Johnson heard about the campaign and chimed in.
The idea is super fun and I don’t want to be a party pooper BUT… (also worth reading the whole thing because the photos in this piece are pretty freakin great) https://t.co/KTF3QWtMZI
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) January 3, 2023
That “BUT….” was clarified further in an interview with Rian Johnson in Netflix Tudum’s John DiLillo, where Johnson explained:
“I think those two things have very different rules,” he says. “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.”
Perhaps as saddened as we were with Johnson’s response, Nerdist decided to take the idea one step further and developed one of their Nerdist Remixes around the concept. The level of perfection achieved is only marred perhaps by the further lost possibility in a full crossover; however, if this is all we get it’ll still be well worth it.
Crossover art by Netflix Tudum
Nerdist Remix, edited by Matt Caron with graphics by Adam Murray & Matt Caron, seamlessly melds together Benoit Blanc in Knives Out with many many Muppets properties for an incredible mock trailer “Rainbow Connection – A Benoit Blanc Mystery”. You could have an entire challenge with your Muppets loving friends where you count the sheer number of Muppets films they pulled clips from, including the all too appropriate The Great Muppet Caper.
For Johnson’s sake, maybe this will keep the clamor of a Muppets/Blanc crossover to a low roar. We may still hunger for what could have been, however, we are equally excited to enjoy this hypothetical trailer in all its excellence.
