Will There Be More ‘Knives Out’ Movies? Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig Are “Already Starting to Formulate” Ideas

Wake up, Knives Out fans. The third installment in writer-director Rian Johnson’s hit mystery saga is finally here with a fresh, star-studded batch of murder suspects.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery fulfills a two-sequel distribution deal inked by Johnson and Netflix in 2021. The streaming giant snagged the rights to the series after the original whodunit achieved massive critical and commercial success under Lionsgate.

Where the beloved property is headed next is a burning question fit for the likes of Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). But Johnson made it clear Monday at the Los Angeles premiere of Wake Up Dead Man that he would like to continue expanding the Knives Out universe.

“Creatively, I feel energized after making this one,” he told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. “Daniel and I are already starting to formulate … what could the next one be if we do another one?”

The two-time Oscar nominee added that he enjoys working with a new ensemble of actors for a totally different story each time he embarks on a Knives Out journey. “I don’t know why I would stop doing it if we could keep making them,” Johnson said. 

Blanc is back on the case in Wake Up Dead Man after a small Catholic church in upstate New York becomes the site of a confounding crime. In addition to Craig, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2019’s Knives Out and 2022’s Glass Onion features franchise newcomers Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny and Daryl McCormack.

Cailee Spaeny, Mila Kunis, Rian Johnson, Josh O’Connor, Kerry Washington, Josh Brolin and Ram Bergman at the L.A. premiere.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Given the film’s setting, spirituality was a major topic of discussion at the premiere, which was decorated with fake stained glass and red prayer candles. Johnson, Spaeny and O’Connor all mentioned their personal religious backgrounds.

“I grew up Catholic, so it’s not too far removed from my own experience,” said O’Connor, who took the extra step of consulting a real priest from Colorado while preparing to play Father Jud Duplenticy, a young priest with a strong moral compass. “He has a brilliant mind and excellent faith and leads in kindness and forgiveness and thoughtfulness, and so he was a real help to me.”

O’Connor did not, however, receive any pointers from his castmate Scott — despite Scott’s acclaimed turn as a hot priest in the Emmy-winning Amazon series Fleabag.

“He’s just not someone who would offer advice without being asked, and I wouldn’t ask for advice because then that would mean comparing myself with Andrew Scott, and I will never compare to Andrew Scott,” O’Connor said. “He’s the greatest ever, and I love him very much.”

Even so, O’Connor joked that Scott’s presence in the onscreen priest hall of fame was “the elephant in the room” on set. “I think we all knew me and Brolin were up against it,” he teased.

On the other side of the priest spectrum is Brolin’s character Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, who serves as a cautionary example of what can happen when the power of the church falls into the wrong hands. To commit to his role, Brolin watched old movies and videos of manipulative religious leaders, studying how these figures “fishpole people in, ingratiate them and then nail them.”

“I don’t like watching this guy — it doesn’t make me happy,” Brolin said of the Monsignor. “I saw [the film] for the first time, and … it made me really uncomfortable. But I think it’s appropriate for the role. The writing is so good.”

The thrill of crafting a Knives Out screenplay, Johnson explained, is using the murder mystery genre to “engage with the here and now” — from hostility toward immigrants (as depicted in the first feature) to the weaponization of religion. In a moment echoing the themes of multiple Knives Out entries, a group of top Catholic bishops and nuns recently spoke out against the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts in the United States.

“I was so happy to see the bishops … make that statement recently about the cruelty of how the current administration is handling immigration right now — the inhumanity of it and how that is so unchristlike,” Johnson said. “It’s something that all of us as human beings — religion aside — we shouldn’t be standing for right now.”

Wake Up Dead Man opens Nov. 26 in select theaters and debuts Dec. 12 on Netflix.