Rian Johnson may still be smarting at the cancellation of his brilliant TV series, Pokerface, but his new Knives Out movie looks set to take the pain away as its Rotten Tomatoes score has continued to rise as it prepares to welcome audiences into cinemas for the latest Daniel Craig-led whodunit.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third collaboration between Johnson and Craig, who once again returns as the enigmatic Benoit Blanc with a new mystery to keep him occupied and test his detective skills to the limit. Surrounded by another ensemble of famous faces, this new movie is a darker tale than Glass Onion, and it has paid off with a Rotten Tomatoes score that only just falls short of 2019’s Knives Out in the eyes of critics.
With 121 reviews, Wake Up Dead Man is now sitting on a lively 95% Tomatometer score, and is already making a strong case for the franchise to return for even more mysteries in the future. Surpassing the 91% score of Glass Onion, which itself was a record-breaker for Netflix in 2022, the new movie is “sharper than a razor,” “proof that Johnson doesn’t miss,” and, according to several reviews, “the best in the franchise.” You can read our review of Wake Up Dead Man here.
Having a central character that fans have come to love from his previous outings, Daniel Craig seems to be making it easy for Johnson to find the mark. The synopsis of the latest installment reads:
“Detective Benoit Blanc takes on a new case that brings him into the orbit of a charismatic priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, and his devout congregation. When a mysterious death occurs, Blanc must navigate a complex web of secrets and simmering tensions within the community to uncover the truth.”
Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig Can Dominate the Mystery Genre
Wake Up Dead Man is the last movie to have been greenlit by Netflix following the original success of Knives Out. With review scores through the roof, the streamer would be foolish not to enlist the pair – and even more stars – to continue Benoit Blanc’s adventures of murder, mystery, and deductions that would even confound Sherlock Holmes.
The cast joining Craig for his dark and Gothic mystery this time around includes Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, and Jeremy Renner. Like previous movies, not all of them will make it out alive, and several of them will be keeping secrets from Blanc as he attempts to solve his latest conundrum.
Both Johnson and Craig have made it clear that they would love to continue making Benoit Blanc mysteries for as long as they are able. However, Johnson previously revealed that Wake Up Dead Man was the hardest script he has ever written due to the deeply religious themes of the movie. He told Empire Magazine.
“This was definitely the hardest script I’ve ever written. I grew up very Christian — not just raised going to church, but with a belief in God, and a relationship with Christ being incredibly central to the way I framed everything in the world around me. And I’m not anymore. I have a lot of complicated feelings about it. That’s the real reason the script was so hard to write.”
While Johnson may have had some struggles with this latest movie, none of them seem to have stemmed from problems creating and executing an amazing mystery story. With that in mind, it is surely only a matter of time before Netflix formally announce the fourth movie Johnson is already “formulating” with Craig.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery has a limited two-week run in theaters starting November 26, 2025. The movie will be released on Netflix on December 12.
- Release Date
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November 26, 2025
- Runtime
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140 minutes