Netflix dropped the first official sneak peek for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery during its Tudum 2025 presentation, and it teases a new mystery and revealed the movie will arrive on December 12, 2025.
This will be the third entry in Rian Johnson’s modern whodunit series, following 2019’s Knives Out and 2022’s Glass Onion. Both were critical and audience hits, with Daniel Craig’s flamboyant Southern sleuth quickly becoming a fan favorite.
The new film comes as the final installment in Johnson’s two-film deal with Netflix, but it may not be the last time we see Blanc, depending on how things contune to go with the franchise.
The cast for Wake Up Dead Man is, as usual, loaded with talent and Craig is joined this time by Jeremy Renner, Josh O’Connor, Kailee Spaeny, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Andrew Scott, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Daryl McCormack, Annie Hamilton, Kerry Frances, and Thomas Haden Church.
As for what the story entails, Netflix is still keeping that part under wraps. But Johnson’s comments from a previously interview offer a clue about just how different this one might be from what’s come before.
“As long as Daniel [Craig] still wants to keep doing it and as long as we have an idea that, to us, feels not just like cranking another one out, but feels genuinely exciting and scary like, ‘Oh, wow, could we pull that off?’
“I love the genre. It’s endlessly malleable, and so it holds endless possibilities. But at the same time, I have made three of them in a row. I don’t feel burnt out on it at all, but the next thing I have in my head to write is an original that’s not a mystery at all. It’s a totally different genre.
“One of the things I love about the mystery genre is that it holds the whodunit. Like sci-fi, it encompasses so many other types of genres. Wake Up Dead Man, this next movie, is so different than Glass Onion. It’s like night and day. And so, as long as we keep doing that, it’s exciting.”
Each one of these films reshuffles the deck, takes big swings, and that’s what mades these movies so fun. So while Wake Up Dead Man might be the end of the Netflix contract, it doesn’t feel like the end of the road.
If Craig’s still having fun and Johnson keeps finding ways to twist the genre, Benoit Blanc’s southern drawl may echo for a while longer.
Wake Up Dead Man premieres on Netflix December 12, 2025.
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