Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion” is a wildly funny murder-mystery worthy of “Knives Out”

3.5 stars. Rated PG-13. 2 hours 20 minutes

Everyone in Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion,” the sequel to his unexpectedly delightful 2019 murder mystery “Knives Out,” seems to be having a blast — especially the highly accomplished director.

Johnson, who grew up in Denver, had just come off of the 2017 Star Wars installment “The Last Jedi” when he made “Knives Out,” and it was a straightforward lark by comparison. But amid its fleet humor, it had a dizzying cast and labyrinthine plot, and its sturdy charms have only grown with repeated viewings.

Improbably, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” — which again stars a hilariously accented Daniel Craig as famous detective Benoit Blanc — is even bigger, more dazzling and more fun. Premiering on Netflix on Dec. 23, it trades the Agatha Christie-like environs of wealthy New England for the sunny climes of a private island off the coast of Greece. There, a group of old friends and business partners has been called together by tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton).

Also invited to the gathering, and mysteriously so: Blanc. He’s idle at the start of the movie, playing Among Us on his laptop with his famous buddies, who happen to be the late Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim (in their final roles) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It’s the set-up for a number of mischievous cameos and references to actors like Jeremy Renner and Jared Leto (Leto’s fictional “hard kombucha” is a running joke), but the focus always remains on the ensemble.

Besides Craig and Norton, there’s Janelle Monáe as tech entrepreneur Cassandra “Andi” Brand; Kate Hudson as party-girl Birdie Jay; Dave Bautista as conservative Twitch personality Duke Cody; Kathryn Hahn as Connecticut governor Claire Debella; Leslie Odom Jr. as uneasy scientist Lionel Toussaint; Madelyn Cline as Duke’s girlfriend Whiskey; and Jessica Henwick as Birdie’s frazzled assistant. Each is as funny and committed as they’ve ever been, and that’s saying a lot.

Even with the crammed roster, none of the characters are squeezed for air. This isn’t just because Johnson’s diamond-hard script is filled with “nothing is as it seems” facets, but because he’s a thoughtful and humanistic director who puts as much tenderness in his films as he does withering takedowns of greedy, privileged jerks. Bron calls his old associates to his island for a canned murder-mystery dinner, but things get messy when a real murder is discovered.

“Glass Onion” opens in a specific moment in time, insulating its spray of pop culture and social media references from seeming stale. Its dialogue takes aim at Twitter and NFT fails, mindless racism and class conflicts. But its characters are written with classic Hollywood flair of a Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder screwball comedy (and, by extension, the Cohen Brothers’ best work). The audience is never smarter than Blanc, but the cadre of self-important “disruptors,” as Bron calls them, are a three-ring circus of ineptitude.