Wake Up Dead Man First Look Teases Knives Out 3 And Netflix Premiere Date

Fans of Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc mysteries have been waiting quite a while for the third installment. Today, however, we finally got a closer look at "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" during Netflix's TUDUM event.

"Wake Up Dead Man," which follows 2019's "Knives Out" and 2022's "Glass Onion," brings Craig back as Benoit Blanc, a shrewd private detective with a thick Southern accent and a wardrobe full of impeccably tailored suits. This time around, Craig, the mainstay of the franchise, is joined by the following list of ridiculously beautiful and talented cast members: Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church. As of press time, not much is known about their specific character roles, but based on photos previously released by Netflix, O'Connor will be playing a priest, as will Brolin. Meanwhile, Kunis is set to play a police chief who, presumably, works with Blanc to solve a murder mystery.

When the first "Knives Out" movie — then a standalone project — hit theaters in the fall of 2019, audiences and critics were absolutely blown away by Rian Johnson's clever puzzle-box mystery starring Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, and Christopher Plummer. With a budget of just $40 million, the movie went on to make a genuinely astonishing amount of money at the box office (just under $313 million worldwide, to be precise) and ended up spawning its own little cinematic universe.

In 2021, Netflix bought the rights to future "Knives Out" movies written and directed by Johnson (and, of course, starring Craig), and the following year, we got "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." Thanks to the streamer's clearly massive budget (as evidenced by the enormous set pieces, the fact that Johnson shot on location in Greece, and the namesake Beatles song that plays over the "Glass Onion" credits), Johnson got to really have some fun with the movie, adding Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., and several others into the mix. 

As far as I'm personally concerned, I'll watch Craig's Benoit Blanc solve mysteries in far-flung locations as long as Johnson's on board as a writer and director, and it seems like Netflix's willing to keep providing. You can watch "Glass Onion" on Netflix now, while the first "Knives Out" film is available on Amazon Prime Video.

"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" will premiere December 12, 2025, on Netflix.