“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is finally out, and the film has a stacked cast — and even includes final appearances from the late Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim.
The sequel to Rian Johnson’s 2019 “Knives Out” has Daniel Craig returning to his role as detective Benoit Blanc, this time for a new adventure with new characters.
The star-studded cast includes Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista.
But on top of the notable cast list, Johnson, 49, also threw in some surprising cameos.
In what ultimately became the final on-screen appearance for either icon, both Lansbury and Sondheim appear early on in the movie in a Zoom call with Blanc during the early days of COVID-19.
The group in the Zoom attempts to play the online mystery video game “Among Us.”
Lansbury died in October at 96 — just a few days short of her 97th birthday. She died at home in her sleep, according to a statement from her family sent to The Post.
The cameo she got in the movie honors her credits in the mystery genre, namely her role as Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote,” which ran for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996.
Broadway legend Sondheim died in November 2021 at 91.
“It means so much that they were in the movie,” Johnson told Entertainment Weekly of the two late stars’ cameos. “It means even more to me that I got 10 minutes with each of them to just tell them what their work meant to me, which was very, very special.”
Johnson explained that when they were thinking of who they could have make a cameo for the “very small, fun little moment,” they thought, “‘Who would be the pie-in-the-sky, we’ll-never-get-them idea?'”
“With Angela Lansbury, she’s extraordinary in so many ways in her connection to the genre. She’s just a hero,” he said.
“And then Sondheim has a massive connection to the murder-mystery genre. He was a puzzle and mystery nut,” Johnson continued. “He co-wrote, with Anthony Perkins, ‘The Last of Sheila,’ which our film takes a huge page from in terms of the setup. And a lot of people don’t know [it’s] the only straight play he ever wrote that wasn’t a musical was a whodunit.”
Also seen in the same Zoom call as Lansbury and Sondheim were NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and “Russian Doll” actress Natasha Lyonne.
Abdul-Jabbar wasn’t the only athlete to make a cameo in “Glass Onion.”
Serena Williams, 41, made a cameo through a fitness app placed on the wall of the gym.
At first, it appears Williams’ personal trainer character is shown through a pre-taped video, but as Craig and Monáe’s character chat in the gym, Williams asks the pair if either of them plans to work out.
One cameo in the sequel helps make a big revelation for Blanc’s character.
Hugh Grant, 62, appears in a scene where he opens the door after a box is delivered to Blanc’s apartment — acknowledging that Blanc lives with a male partner.
Craig, 54, told the Sunday Times that his character being gay “just feels right.”
“We didn’t want to be coy or cute about it. We just wanted it to be a fact of the character,” Johnson added.
Ethan Hawke made an “unplanned” cameo in the film as “Efficient Man,” according to the movie credits.
Hawke, 52, greets Miles Bron (Norton) and Blanc’s guests as they board a boat in Greece, spraying a substance into the guests’ mouths that seemingly immunizes people from COVID-19.
In an early scene from the film, cellist Yo-Yo Ma can be seen at a party hosted by Hudson’s Birdie Jay in which he helps solve Bron’s mysterious invite to his private island.
There are also a couple of cameos in the film that aren’t seen on-screen.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 41, supplies the sounds for the hourly chime that rings on the private island.
Jeremy Renner, 51, is also not physically in the film, but the actor gets a shout-out when his fake celebrity brand hot sauce is used in the plot.
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is streaming now on Netflix.
