Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third outing for Daniel Craig's genteel Southern sleuth Benoit Blanc, once again written and directed by Rian Johnson. After the sun-drenched glamour of Glass Onion, Johnson steers the franchise into darker, gothic territory, trading tropical excess for the shadows and stained glass of a small-town Catholic parish in upstate New York.

When a charismatic monsignor, played by Josh Brolin, is murdered during a Good Friday service, Blanc is drawn into a genuinely mysterious case in which a young, reform-minded priest, Father Jud Duplenticy, played by Josh O'Connor, becomes the prime suspect. The stacked ensemble includes Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack and Thomas Haden Church, each a potential suspect in a tightly wound whodunit preoccupied with faith and doubt.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025 and enjoyed a theatrical run before landing on Netflix in December, where it shot to the top of the charts. Reviews were strongly positive, with critics singling out Josh O'Connor's soulful performance and Johnson's willingness to deepen the series' emotional stakes. It streams on Netflix.