‘Wake Up Dead Man’ Poster Plus All Character Names and More in New Rian Johnson Mystery Revealed
Well, one mystery has been solved. Netflix has released the first poster for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Rian Johnson, who writes and directs the third film in the trilogy featuring Daniel Craig as famed detective Benoit Blanc.
Every Benoit Blanc mystery from Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Rian Johnson imparts its own revelation; each tale offers a fresh gospel of intrigue. 2019’s Knives Out introduces the suited detective (played by Daniel Craig) at a cozy New England mansion, where a family’s greed boils over in the wake of its patriarch’s mysterious death. Its 2022 follow-up, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, skewers tech-world excess with heightened comedy on a Greek island.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery follows in this tradition, while turning the lens inward to explore the nature of belief. “This film charts [Blanc’s] most personal journey yet,” says the Academy Award-nominated Johnson. “He’s forced to engage with the case — and with himself — in a way that’s completely new.”
Johnson’s latest film brings Blanc to a small hamlet in leafy upstate New York, where Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns for his most dangerous case yet in the third and darkest chapter of Rian Johnson’s murder mystery opus. When young priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is sent to assist charismatic firebrand Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), it’s clear that all is not well in the pews. Wicks’s modest-but-devoted flock includes devout church lady Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), circumspect groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), tightly-wound lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), aspiring politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), best-selling author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), and concert cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny). After a sudden and seemingly impossible murder rocks the town, the lack of an obvious suspect prompts local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to join forces with renowned detective Benoit Blanc to unravel a mystery that defies all logic.
The religious setting offered rich soil for a murder mystery to take root. “Themes of guilt, mystery, morality, and fallible humanity all feel right at home in a church, with a man of God in the center of the mix,” Johnson explains. “I have strong feelings about faith: both my own personal experience and how it intersects with our country’s cultural and civic life, and the ways that intersection touches all of us differently. So it felt like rich ground for a good story.”
A host of Johnson’s collaborators in the trilogy return for Wake Up Dead Man including composer Nathan Johnson, cinematographer Steve Yedlin and Academy Award-nominated production designer Rick Heinrichs. Veteran casting directors Bret Howe and Nina Gold will be in the running for the Academy’s new Oscar category for Best Casting.
Johnson produces alongside Ram Bergman. Wake Up Dead Man will have its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, September 6, followed by an opening night debut at the 69th BFI London Film Festival on October 8. The film will be in select theaters November 26 and on Netflix December 12.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- ‘Jay Kelly,’ ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Pluribus,’ ‘Task’ and More on AFI’s Top 10 Films and Television of 2025 Lists - December 4, 2025
- ‘Frankenstein’ to Receive Visionary Honor from Palm Springs International Film Awards - December 4, 2025
- Robert Yeoman to be Honored with American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award - December 3, 2025
‘Jay Kelly,’ ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Pluribus,’ ‘Task’ and More on AFI’s Top 10 Films and Television of 2025 Lists 
‘Frankenstein’ to Receive Visionary Honor from Palm Springs International Film Awards 
Robert Yeoman to be Honored with American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award 
National Board of Review: ‘One Battle After Another’ Tops in Film, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor; Netflix Lands Four in Top 10