New 'Knives Out' Movie 'Wake Up Dead Man' Will Get Daniel Craig Sleuthing as Benoit Blanc Again in 2025
Where Rian Johnson's next whodunnit will be set and who'll be among the suspects hasn't yet been revealed, but the film will hit Netflix next year.
Daniel Craig might be done saying "Bond, James Bond" after bowing out of the 007-focused franchise with No Time to Die, but he hasn't finished playing Blanc, Benoit Blanc yet. After first stepping into the Southern investigator's shoes in 2019's Knives Out, then sliding back in in 2022's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, he'll slip into the part again in 2025's Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
Yes, every three years we get a Knives Out movie, or so the trend is playing out. The sleuthing saga's writer and director Rian Johnson announced both the new flick's name and that it'd release in 2025 via social media.
"I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is. There's a whole tonal spectrum from Carr to Christie, and getting to explore that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc movies," the filmmaker who also brought audiences Brick, The Brothers Bloom, Looper, Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi and TV's Poker Face (which has been renewed for a second season) noted.
The next Benoit Blanc mystery, the follow-up to Knives Out and Glass Onion, is called Wake Up Dead Man. pic.twitter.com/pdDXRDmwcI
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) May 24, 2024
That's all there is details-wise for now, however, with no news about the setting or who Blanc will be pointing the finger at — aka which famous names will play Wake Up Dead Man's suspects — unveiled as yet. And, exactly when in 2025 the flick will hit, and also whether it will reach cinemas before arriving on Netflix, also hasn't been revealed. But, the streamer is teasing that this will be Blanc's "most dangerous case yet".
So far, Johnson has plunged his detective into a familiar scenario twice, but always ensured that the end result was anything but routine. His trusty setup: bring a group of people together in a family home, mode of transport or lavish vacation setting, then watch on when one thing that always occurs in a whodunnit happens. That'd be a murder, in a formula that Agatha Christie also loved, as book-to-film adaptations Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and A Haunting in Venice have shown. The author's play The Mousetrap and recent flick See How They Run, which riffs on it, make the same point. And, so does this clearly Christie-inspired franchise.
The cast across Knives Out and Glass Onion has been impressive. Chris Evans (Pain Hustlers), Ana de Armas (Ghosted), Jamie Lee Curtis (Haunted Mansion), Michael Shannon (The Flash), Toni Collette (Mafia Mamma), Don Johnson (The Collective), Lakeith Stanfield (The Changeling), Christopher Plummer (Departure), Katherine Langford (Savage River) and Jaeden Martell (Mr Harrigan's Phone) all featured the first time around. In the second flick, Edward Norton (Asteroid City), Janelle Monáe (Antebellum), Kathryn Hahn (Tiny Beautiful Things), Leslie Odom Jr (The Exorcist: Believer), Jessica Henwick (The Royal Hotel), Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks), Kate Hudson (Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon) and Dave Bautista (Dune: Part Two) all co-starred.
If you saw either — or any murder-mystery involving a motley crew of characters brought together in one location when someone turns up dead — then you'll know how this movie series works from there. There's a standout setting, that big group of chalk-and-cheese folks, threats aplenty and just as much suspicion.
There's obviously no trailer yet for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, but there is a video announcing the title, which you can check out below — alongside the trailers for Knives Out and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery:
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will release sometime in 2025 — we'll update you with an exact date when one is announced. Read our reviews of Knives Out and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
Images: John Wilson/Netflix © 2022.
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