Every Benoit Blanc mystery from Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Rian Johnson offers its own gospel of intrigue, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is no exception. Following the cozy deceit of Knives Out and the sunlit satire of Glass Onion, the third installment turns inward, exploring the nature of belief and the weight of guilt. As part of Collider’s Exclusive Preview event, we are thrilled to team up with Netflix to reveal a new image that finds Daniel Craig’s genteel detective alongside Challengers star Josh O’Connor. O’Connor joins the whodunit universe for its new, darker chapter, which Collider’s Ross Bonaime feels proves “that Johnson has captured lightning in a bottle three times in a row.”
Set in a small rural hamlet, Wake Up Dead Man introduces O’Connor as Jud Duplenticy, a young priest sent to assist Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) in tending to a devout but secretive congregation. When a murder rocks the community, Blanc joins forces with local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to untangle a crime that tests the limits of both faith and logic. Craig remains the anchor amid the chaos, reprising Blanc with the same combination of theatrical wit and human empathy that has defined the series. O’Connor, meanwhile, embodies the story’s emotional core as Jud wrestles with a crisis of faith and morality that mirrors the detective’s own.
Who Stars in ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’?
The film’s ensemble is stacked with award-winning talent, including Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Daryl McCormack, Andrew Scott, Thomas Haden Church, Jeremy Renner, and Cailee Spaeny. Johnson and producer Ram Bergman once again teamed up under their T-Street banner, joined by Knives Out collaborators Rick Heinrichs on production design, Steve Yedlin on cinematography, Nathan Johnson creating the score for the film, and Jenny Eagan returning for costume design. The result, as Johnson has explained in the past to Netflix’s TUDUM, is “gothic and grounded,” with much of the film unfolding within an old stone church illuminated by flickering candlelight and shadowed by graveyards.
Returning to the literary roots of the murder mystery, Johnson has cited inspirations reaching back to Edgar Allan Poe and early Gothic fiction. The film’s themes of sin, secrecy, and salvation are filtered through the director’s wit, proving once again that even the darkest corners of humanity can be illuminated by a well-timed deduction.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery opens in select theaters on November 26 and premieres on Netflix on December 12, 2025. Don’t miss the rest of Collider’s Winter Preview Event coverage, spanning the most exciting television and film releases in the coming months.
- Release Date
-
November 26, 2025
- Runtime
-
140 minutes
- Director
-
Rian Johnson
- Writers
-
Rian Johnson
- Producers
-
Ram Bergman, Rian Johnson
