Rian Johnson Releases First Look At Daniel Craig In Knives Out 3

This will be Daniel Craig’s third time playing Benoit Blanc after first appearing in 2019’s Knives Out and 2022’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. After playing James Bond for so long, you’d think Craig might be reluctant to take on a new franchise role, but the Rian Johnson-written and directed series has been a delightful hit, and Craig’s sleuth with Southern charm has been a large part of the success of the films.

Of course, the twisty-turny narrative and all-star cast have also made the whodunits wildly entertaining, whip-smart, and engrossing for critics and audiences alike.

Of course, like previous entries to the franchise, Daniel Craig will be joined by an amazing group of actors for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. This time, the cast will include Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Daryl McCormack, Josh Brolin, and Thomas Haden Church.

The plot is being kept under wraps for now, but we’ll undoubtedly find out more once the first trailer for the film is released.

Daniel Craig and Rian Johnson’s Knives Out was an unexpected hit in 2019, raking in $310 million worldwide and nabbing an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Netflix then decided to get in on the action and forked up $450 million to get the rights to produce two sequels, the first of which was 2022’s Glass Onion.

Glass Onion earned a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination (since it was based on an existing franchise this time) and was met with equal critical acclaim from critics and audiences.

Of course, Glass Onion didn’t get as many box office bucks as its predecessor due to it being a Netflix film, though the streamer did do a limited one-week theatrical release which was estimated to bring in around $15 million.

People still watched it in droves, though, as the sequel was reported to log over 209.5 million hours viewed worldwide within the first ten days of its release. It seems likely that Daniel Craig and Rian Johnson will bring just as many fans back for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery when it releases.

Daniel Craig and Rian Johnson have both expressed interest in making future Knives Out films as long as they are both involved together, and Wake Up Dead Man will be the final film in Netflix’s current deal to produce them.

It’ll be interesting to see if the whodunit franchise is snapped up by another studio for future installments or if Netflix will figure out a way to renew the deal. In any case, you can catch Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery when it hits screens in 2025.