Rian Johnson’s original Knives Outfilm, released in 2019, worked as well as it did (and spawned two sequels) in no small part thanks to the clever writing on display from the director. The murder-mystery format is used to its fullest extent, and even expertly subverted the story structure and plot structure that’s to become expected of the genre. Glass Onion played even further with the form, telling an almost dual narrative that jumps in time and place in a way that recontextualizes the double murder mystery at the center of its story. Now, with Wake Up Dead Man, it seems that the writer/director will be leaning more into traditional storytelling techniques.
While speaking at Deadline‘s Contenders London event, Johnson went into detail about how this latest Knives Out mystery is going back to basics with its story structure. Rather than dropping in at different points of time or sharing key details in different order, Wake Up Dead Man will be much more palatable, in the vein of one classic author, with Johnson saying:
“The reality of this movie, it has almost like a more traditional murder mystery structure. This is how most Agatha Christie books work, where in the first act you meet all the suspects, you meet the protagonist, who’s not the detective. Then the murder happens, and the detective shows up.”
Johnson has never been shy about the influence Agatha Christie has had on his most recent body of work, whether it was the first two Knives Out films or the television series Poker Face. The filmmaker even said while promoting Glass Onion years earlier that his aim for that film was to recreate the joy he found in the adaptations of her works into feature films, and now he is leaning further into the author’s style.
‘Wake Up Dead Man’s More Traditional Approach Has Worked Well With Audiences
Wake Up Dead Man has already been touted as the darkest Knives Out mystery film yet, with Benoit Blanc ( Daniel Craig) caught in a Gothic backdrop with a murderer’s row of talent playing suspects. The likes of Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Josh O’Connor, Kerry Washington, and more are all part of the latest ensemble, with the mysterious death of Josh Brolin’s character setting off the events of the story. Overall, it seems that the more traditional structure of Wake Up Dead Man will accentuate the intensity and thrills of this new mystery, giving viewers more conventional tension and stakes when compared to the first two films.
The third Knives Out movie has already had the chance to premiere at a couple of festivals, with the film earning an impressive 93% “certified fresh” on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 73 reviews. Johnson’s more traditional approach to this latest film has worked well with critics up to this point, and a more general audience will get the chance to experience the character-driven mystery when it gets a limited theatrical release on November 26, 2025, and on 
Netflix on December 12.
- Release Date
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December 12, 2025
- Runtime
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144 minutes
- Producers
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Ram Bergman