Wake Up Dead Man Is Darker Than The Previous Knives Out Movies, And I’m Intrigued By Rian Johnson’s Latest Comments On How This Case Affects Benoit Blanc

In 2019, Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc joined Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and so many more as one of the great fictional detectives thanks to his investigation in Knives Out. Blanc returned three years later for Glass Onion, and Wake Up Dead Man will bring him back into our lives towards the end of the 2025 movies calendar. The first teaser for the informally-known Knives Out 3 revealed that it will skew darker compared to its predecessors, and I’m especially intrigued by what writer/director Rian Johnson recently said about how this case affect impact Craig’s character.

This time around, there’s a religious bent to the murder that Benoit Blanc’s looking into, as the Netflix subscription-exclusive Wake Up Dead Man centers around a New England church. Johnson told Empire that “all the suspects are regulars in the parish,” but this won’t be a simple solve for Blanc, even going off the standards set by Knives Out and Glass Onion. The filmmaker explained:

The more I learn about Wake Up Dead Man, the more it reminds me of A Haunting in Venice, i.e. Kenneth Branagh’s third outing as the aforementioned Hercule Poirot. Following Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, the 2023 movie not only thrust Agatha Christie’s creation into significantly darker territory as well, it also involved what appeared to be supernatural elements at first. As with A Haunting in Venice, it stands to reason that Benoit will eventually uncover that these “miraculous” things are not what they seem.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Blanc investigation without him teaming up with someone. In Knives Out, that was Ana de Armas’ Marta Cabrera, and then Glass Onion brought in Janelle Monáe’s Helen Brand. Josh O’Connor’s Father Judge will be Blanc’s partner in Wake Up Dead Man, with Rian Johnson adding:

Might some of that “shit” be him breaking up with Hugh Grant’s Phillip, whom we briefly saw in Glass Onion? Or did something else happen to Benoit Blanc in the time since we last saw him on Miles Bron’s island? Whatever’s happening with him, it sounds like this case at the church will impact him more personally than his previous two cinematic adventures.

Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor are joined in Wake Up Dead Man by Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack and Thomas Haden Church. Watch it on Netflix starting Friday, December 12.