Syfy Insider Exclusive

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!

Sign Up For Free to View
SYFY WIRE Poker Face

Rian Johnson Reshot Natasha Lyonne's Glass Onion Cameo in Her Trailer For Poker Face

Can we please please please get a Benoit Blanc-Charlie Cale crossover?

By Josh Weiss
Natasha Lyonne in Poker Face 102; Daniel Craig in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022).

While audiences may not have known it at the time, the long-awaited return of Benoit Blanc in last year's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery heralded the arrival of another quirky sleuth with a real talent for sniffing out killers. That'd be Charlie Cale, the human lie detector played by Natasha Lyonne in the Rian Johnson-created Poker Face (the first season of which is now streaming on Peacock).

In Glass Onion — which takes place against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic — Lyonne appears as herself over Zoom for a game of Among Us with Blanc (Daniel Craig), NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabar (co-author of the Mycroft Holmes novel series), the late Angela Lansbury (star of Murder, She Wrote) and the late Stephen Sondheim (co-writer of The Last Sheila, a major influence on the Knives Out mythos).

RELATED: How Rian Johnson’s Poker Face Was Born Out of a Columbo Binge During COVID Lockdown

"I remember seeing on Twitter after Glass Onion came out, 'Why was Natasha there? It doesn’t make sense,'" Lyonne recalled during a recent interview with Deadline. "But of course, Rian and I already knew about Poker Face, so it was just preemptively planting yet another person who’s involved in detective business, whether that’s Angela Lansbury or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writing all those mystery novels. I was somebody who was busy playing Charlie Cale at work on a daily basis."

The virtual cameo was filmed before principal photography kicked off on Poker Face, which Lyonne and Johnson had sold to Peacock while in post-production on Glass Onion and Russian Doll Season 2, respectively. However, Lyonne's bit ended up being reshot in the thick of production on the new series, which was probably a blessing in disguise since she was in full Charlie mode by that point.

"Shooting it together was actually our first time working together, so we were excited about it," she continued. "And he shot everybody separately because it was Zoom, meaning [Stephen] Sondheim and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] and Angela [Lansbury] and Daniel [Craig]. Then three months into shooting Poker Face, he was like, 'We changed the dialogue for what Daniel is doing, so can I tweak it?' So, we actually reshot it while I was in my Poker Face trailer."

The complete first season of Poker Face is now available to stream on Peacock. Thanks to the loose nature of the anthology format, you can jump in anywhere. Don't know where to begin? Click here for SYFY WIRE's rundown of the best five episodes released so far!

A second season of Poker Face was officially green-lit back in February, though the ongoing writers' strike and Johnson's commitment to the third Benoit Blanc film will probably lead to a delay. "That’s something that’s really up in the air," Johnson said.

Want to check out more gumshoe work while you await Charlie's small screen return? All seasons of Columbo and Murder She Wrote are also streaming on Peacock!