'Glass Onion' director Rian Johnson jokes that Netflix secretly funded Twitter's takeover as his fictional idiot billionaire draws comparisons with Elon Musk

• "Glass Onion" director Rian Johnson joked that Netflix might have funded the Twitter takeover.
• The film's fictional billionaire, Miles Bron, has drawn comparisons with Elon Musk.
• Johnson said this wasn't intentional, saying the character reflected general tech billionaire foibles.

Rian Johnson, director of the new "Knives Out" murder mystery "Glass Onion", joked that Netflix's marketing department may have helped fund Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, after the movie's fictional billionaire drew comparisons online with the real-life tycoon.

In an interview with Wired published Friday, Johnson said the character of Miles Bron — portrayed by Edward Norton — in "Glass Onion" had bizarre similarities to Musk that he hadn't intended when writing the film.

"It's so weird. It's very bizarre. I hope there isn't some secret marketing department at Netflix that's funding this Twitter takeover," Johnson said.

"Glass Onion", the sequel to Johnson's 2019 Agatha Christie homage "Knives Out", was developed and shot in 2021 and written before then. Johnson told Wired that Norton's character was originally based on an amalgamation of tech billionaire personalities.

But he acknowledged the events of the last year — namely Musk's $44 billion takeover of Twitter — meant the film looked more like a direct portrait of the billionaire. Asked if he would ever write a sequel about the downfall of Twitter, Johnson responded: "Didn't I just do that?"

"Glass Onion" tracks a group of friends hosted by Bron on his private Greek island, where he intends to host a murder mystery party. He is initially portrayed as a genius figure who funds his friends' operations and plans to create sustainable energy from hydrogen taken from "abundant seawater."

But as the film progresses Norton's character is slowly revealed to be an idiotic, narcissistic figure by Daniel Craig's detective Benoit Blanc.

Bron's pumping of untested technology; the fact he's the face of a company he didn't really conceive; and his frequent slip-ups have drawn unflattering comparisons with Elon Musk. Musk has repeatedly promised full self-driving cars prematurely; settled a lawsuit over his role in Tesla's founding; and spread misinformation about the pandemic.

Tesla's sinking share price, blunders at Twitter, and a broader rout in tech stocks contributed to wiping $132 billion off Musk's net worth this year as Tesla's share price plunged, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk has also been criticized for his chaotic leadership at Twitter, which has involved botched product rollouts and warnings from European regulators.

Johnson added in his Wired interview: "There's a lot of general stuff about that sort of species of tech billionaire that went directly into it. But obviously, it has almost a weird relevance in exactly the current moment. A friend of mine said, "Man, that feels like it was written this afternoon." And that's just sort of a horrible, horrible accident, you know?"