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Babe, get up. A new Knives Out mystery is afoot! The next installment, Wake Up Dead Man, continues the tradition of naming the films after rock songs. Rian Johnson’s third whodunit in the series will get a release in select theaters beginning November 26, in addition to a Netflix release the following month. Below, all the clues we have about Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, starting with the trailer.
What happens in the trailer?
Netflix is taking us to church. The new trailer for Wake Up Dead Man sets the scene for the “unsolvable” crime that will inevitably be solved: Monsignor Wicks gave a sermon, walked into a sealed concrete box while his congregation watched, then was found dead about 30 seconds later. Presumably, his funeral is the reason why everyone is wearing black (even if Andrew Scott only threw a jacket over a flannel) in a panning shot of our potential suspects. Can Daniel Craig get anyone to confess to their sins? Luckily, he has a priest on his side. Josh O’Connor plays a man of God who appears to be assisting “Benoit frickin’ Blanc” with his investigation — and who whispers a sound bite that seems to sum up the film: “Holy shit.”
When is the release date?
After about two weeks in theaters, Wake Up Dead Man will stream on Netflix on December 12. Like its predecessors, the film will also premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6.
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Who’s in the cast of suspects?
The “darkest” of Johnson’s murder mysteries is still lit up with stars. Plus, it takes a page from 2025’s biggest trend so far: Catholic intrigue. O’Connor stars as Jud Duplenticy (is that name supposed to remind us of duplicity?), an up-and-coming priest assisting Josh Brolin as Monsignor Jefferson Wicks when a “seemingly impossible” murder leaves local police chief Mila Kunis (somehow cast as a woman called Geraldine Scott) no choice but to call in the Big Blanc. “This was dressed as a miracle, but it’s just a murder,” he intones in the date announcement. “And I solve murders.”
Suspects include those in Wicks’s “modest-but-devoted flock”: Glenn Close as the devout Martha Delacroix; Kerry Washington returning to form as a high-strung lawyer; Jeremy Renner as town doctor Nat Sharp; Daryl McCormack as aspiring politician Cy Draven; Andrew Scott as some sort of Truman Capote analog named Lee Ross; Thomas Haden Church as a groundskeeper; and Cailee Spaeny, taking the stage for herself as concert cellist Simone Vivane.
Is Benoit Blanc okay?
Apparently, he has “the biggest personal journey in this one. Benoit has to engage with the mystery in a different way,” Johnson previously told Empire. “He’s in a very different place than in the previous two films. 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!”
