Rian Johnson, that cunning devil, has done it again: he has gone away and created another mystery in the series that started in 2019 with Knives out and continued in 2022 with Glass onion. The director has promised that Daniel Craig’s effete sleuth Benoit Blanc will return next year in a new whodunnit, and that it will be called Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. But you know what? Don’t bother, Mr. Blanc. We can fix this now. We have all the clues.
Consider: the announcement teaser, which shows no footage but features the previous title cards leading up to the reveal of the new movie title. We are led there by this little trinket, a magnifying glass with a knife blade instead of a handle.
Image: Netflix
Or is it… the weapon of murder?! Will the killer come in? Wake up, dead man (Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have no doubt) use this to fry his victim (Richard Kind, very disturbing) in an elaborate death trap, like a cruel child scorching an ant? It’s more likely than you think! I draw your attention to Exhibit B, Johnson’s X-post about the new film:
I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is. There’s a whole tonal spectrum, from Carr to Christie, and exploring that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc films.
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) May 24, 2024
This makes my horrible statement plausible. Here Johnson signals a tonal pivot Wake up, dead manand the gothic font on the title card suggests that it is a spooky hinge. Richard Kind’s gruesome, nightmare-inducing death will be preceded by a red herring, Schwarzenegger’s faked death by Gisele Bündchen, in her first feature film role since The devil wears Prada. However, she will believe she accidentally killed Arnold, and spend the film being chased by various ghosts (played by Megan Thee Stallion, Tig Notaro and, controversially, an AI recreation of Eminem, which is confusing because they simply had can ask).
And of course Benoit Blanc will spend the entire film puzzling over a Ouija board and writing an original musical. We think this is key to solving the case, but in fact he already knew the answer. It’s what they call a shaggy dog story. Well played Rian.
But if you still want to make this movie, I guess I’ll see it. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery It doesn’t have a release date yet, but the teaser says it will hit Netflix in 2025.