Knives Out 3 has a title: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
“The next Benoit Blanc mystery, the follow-up to Knives Out and Glass Onion, is called Wake Up Dead Man,” writer/director Rian Johnson revealed on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.
A 45-second video on Johnson’s X page also officially confirmed Daniel Craig will reprise his role as Benoit Blanc in the movie that is set to debut on Netflix next year. The streaming giant on its Tudum site also said Craig will return as Blanc to solve a new murder mystery.
“That’s right, Daniel Craig is back as the suave Southern investigator in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, a new installment of the whodunnit franchise written and directed by Rian Johnson. Blanc will be unraveling a brand new murder mystery in an as-yet-undisclosed setting, surrounded by a new colorful cast of suspects,” Netflix said.
The Hollywood Reporter had previously reported on the Netflix pact for the two Knives Out sequels, which included that Johnson doesn’t have to take notes from the streamer, that Craig must star in the sequels and that each must have at least the budget of the 2019 movie, which was in the $40 million range.
Johnson will write and direct the second sequel to his 2019 film, a surprise box office and critical smash whodunit for Lionsgate that earned him an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. “I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is. There’s a whole tonal spectrum from Carr to Christie, and getting to explore that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc movies,” the director posted on his X thread.
It turned out amid the uncertainty of pandemic-era movie theater closures, Netflix emerged to replace Lionsgate as the distributor of the Knives Out franchise sequels. The streaming giant unveiled a staggering $469 million deal with Johnson and his producing partner at T-Street, Ram Bergman, both of whom are represented by CAA for the two film deal.
Friday’s news confirms Netflix is going forward with the Knives Out sequels, having nabbed from Johnson and Bergman a solid theatrical movie franchise for its streaming platform, with Craig on board as Benoit Blanc.
There’s no word on whether Netflix will give Wake Up Dead Man a theatrical release, as it did with Glass Onion, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. That’s despite Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos making clear his priority is Netflix subscribers, not theatrical releases.
The original Knives Out detective tale also bowed in Toronto in 2019 ahead of its theatrical release, with Chris Evans and Daniel Craig on the red carpet.