The first plot details for Netflix’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery have been revealed. In the film, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) faces his most dangerous mystery yet in the latest entry in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will see Blanc in a small New England town, where a priest and his congregation are pointing fingers after a very peculiar passing.
Here are the plot details for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery:
This time, Johnson riffs on the dark, gothic elements of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue — a seemingly impossible locked-room scenario involving a corpse — while still incorporating many of the series’ signature elements.
Set in a small town and focusing on its local church, Wake Up Dead Man is packed with stars, including Josh O’Connor as the younger cleric to Josh Brolin’s autocratic, abrasive priest; Glenn Close as his right-hand person; plus Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Jeremy Renner (whose likeness had a memorable appearance in Glass Onion), and Mila Kunis as a local cop who is as determined as Blanc to solve this seemingly insoluble case. And there’s a murder that presents itself as an impossible crime. All that, and Craig delivers perhaps his best Blanc yet.
According to the TIFF website, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is “one of the most successful mystery series in recent film history and is as strong, inventive, and entertaining as ever.”
In a recent interview with Empire, Johnson said, “Blanc is seeing it as, ‘It’s just a murder; I can solve this.’ The way the murder presents itself is the opposite of that.” Johnson added, “It’s framed as an impossible thing that could never have happened, almost miraculous in nature. Blanc, as the rationalist, is coming in to do what he does and prove that wrong.”
Johnson continued, “He ends up partnering with Blanc on solving this mystery — it’s very much [Jud’s] journey,” Johnson explains. For Benoit, though, there’s more to this new chapter than trying to find a murderer — the superbly dressed sleuth has a bit of soul-searching on the cards as well. “He has the biggest personal journey in this one. Benoit has to engage with [the mystery] in a different way — he’s in a very different place than in the previous two films.” It sounds very much like another sterling collaborative effort between the franchise’s leading man and Johnson. “Daniel and I had a lot of fun thinking about where Blanc is at in his life — and I think he’s going through some shit!”
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Cast Details:
- Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a private detective/investigator
- Josh O’Connor as Rev. Jud Duplenticy, a priest
- Glenn Close as Martha Delacroix
- Josh Brolin as Msgr. Jefferson Wicks, a priest
- Mila Kunis as Geraldine Scott, a police chief
- Jeremy Renner as Dr. Nat Sharp
- Kerry Washington as Vera Draven
- Andrew Scott as Lee Ross
- Cailee Spaeny as Simone Vivane
- Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven
- Thomas Haden Church as Samson Holt
Directed by 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. The film is produced by Johnson and his partner, Ram Bergman, through T-Street Pictures and will be distributed by Netflix.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will have its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025, and will be released by Netflix on December 12, 2025.
Source: TIFF
