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Wake Up Dead Man
2025 film by Rian Johnson From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is a 2025 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It is a standalone sequel to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) and the third installment overall in the Knives Out film series. It stars Daniel Craig, who reprises his role as master detective Benoit Blanc.[2][3] The ensemble cast also includes Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025, and is scheduled to be released in theaters on November 26, and will be released by Netflix on December 12, 2025. The film received positive reviews from critics.
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Premise
Detective Benoit Blanc takes on a new case that brings him into the orbit of a charismatic priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, and his devout congregation. When a mysterious death occurs, Blanc must navigate a complex web of secrets and simmering tensions within the community to uncover the truth.
Cast
- Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a private detective/investigator
- Josh O'Connor as Rev. Jud Duplenticy, a young priest
- Glenn Close as Martha Delacroix, a devout church lady and Wicks' right-hand woman.
- Josh Brolin as Msgr. Jefferson Wicks, a charismatic and domineering priest who serves as the congregation's central figure.
- Mila Kunis as Geraldine Scott, a local police chief
- Jeremy Renner as Dr. Nat Sharp, a town doctor
- Kerry Washington as Vera Draven, a tightly-wound lawyer
- Andrew Scott as Lee Ross, a best-selling author
- Cailee Spaeny as Simone Vivane, a disabled former concert cellist
- Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven, an aspiring politician
- Thomas Haden Church as Samson Holt, a circumspect groundskeeper
- Jeffrey Wright as Langstrom, a bishop who assigns Duplenticy to Wicks' church.
- Annie Hamilton as Grace Wicks
- James Faulkner as Reverend Prentice Wicks, Jefferson's father
- Bridget Everett as Louise
- Noah Segan as Nikolai
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a baseball announcer
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Production
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Development
Before the release of Knives Out (2019), Rian Johnson said he would like to create sequels with Benoit Blanc investigating further mysteries, and already had an idea for a new film.[4] On March 31, 2021, it was reported that Netflix bought the rights to two Knives Out sequels for over $400 million.[5]
Writing
In June 2022, Johnson revealed Knives Out 3 was a working title with his intent being each film has a distinct title, citing the works of Agatha Christie as his inspiration for the films and the individual titles.[6] In November 2022, Johnson said he was preparing to work on writing the third film.[7] By January 2023, Johnson confirmed he had started writing the script for the third film, stating it will be tonally and thematically different from the previous installments.[8] Johnson later stated though he had approved the subtitle of A Knives Out Mystery for the previous installment, he would like to rename the series and add A Benoit Blanc Mystery as subtitles to future installments.[9]
In October 2023, following the resolution of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, Johnson announced he had started working on the script for the third film. The filmmaker stated he had the premise planned, and could begin writing again.[10] The film's official title Wake Up Dead Man was derived from a song by U2.[11]
Casting
Daniel Craig was expected to reprise his role early in development; he acknowledged interest in returning early on during the project's development.[12] Craig was paid $100 million for his involvement in the two Knives Out sequels.[13] In May 2024, Josh O'Connor, Cailee Spaeny,[14] Andrew Scott,[15] Kerry Washington,[16] Glenn Close,[17] Jeremy Renner,[18] Mila Kunis,[19] and Daryl McCormack,[20] joined the main cast; Renner's likeness had previously been used in Glass Onion, although he had not been featured otherwise.[21] The role marks Renner's first major feature film production since his near-fatal snowplow accident in January 2023.[22] The following month, Josh Brolin and Thomas Haden Church joined the cast.[23][24]
Filming
As with the previous two films, Steve Yedlin and Nathan Johnson returned as cinematographer and composer, respectively.[25][26] Principal photography began on June 10, 2024, in London.[14][27][28] First-look photos from the set revealed Craig's character, Benoit Blanc, with a noticeably different, longer hairstyle than in previous films.[29] On June 19, 2024, Close revealed she was "really hit hard" with both COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which was also revealed to have resulted in her being able to only participate in two days of filming by that point in time.[30][31] Filming wrapped on August 17.[32]
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Release
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025.[1][33] It is scheduled to be released in select theaters on November 26, 2025 and is scheduled to be released by Netflix on December 12, 2025.[34][35] The film had its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 8, 2025.[36][35]
Reception
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Damon Wise for Deadline writes that this one may "be the best one yet" of the Knives Out franchise due to its more introspective nature. [37]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 79 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Giving Benoit Blanc a worthy mystery with its genuinely soulful fixation on faith and a scene-stealing Josh O'Connor performance, Wake Up Dead Man is another Knives Out puzzle that comes together splendidly."[38] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[39]
Accolades
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Future
In September 2022, Johnson confirmed his intention to make more films in the series.[42] Later that month, Craig and Johnson separately said they would continue making further films, as long as they were both involved.[43] In October 2025, Johnson stated that he had nothing planned for a fourth film in the series, jokingly asking a The Hollywood Reporter interviewer if he could offer him ideas, though he did express a willingness to make another film as long as he and Craig have fun doing them, finding them challenging to make and coming up with new plots as well as audiences enjoy them.[44]
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References
External links
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