Benoit Blanc goes full Gothic in Wake Up Dead Man trailer

[Karlston]

"To understand this case, we need to look around the myth that's being constructed."

 

Private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) might just turn out to be Rian Johnson's greatest creation. Introduced in 2019's Knives Out, Blanc's syrupy Southern drawl and idiosyncratic approach to solving a mysterious New England death charmed audiences worldwide and launched a modern whodunnit franchise.

 

The third installment in the series, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, has already garnered early rave reviews after screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) over the weekend. And now Netflix has released the official trailer, showcasing Blanc tackling the inexplicable death of a parish priest in a spookily Gothic small-town setting.

 

(Very minor spoilers for Knives Out and Glass Onion below.)

 

Knives Out was a masterfully plotted, winning mashup of Clue and Murder on the Orient Express—or any number of adaptations of novels by the grande dame of murder mysteries, Agatha Christie—along with other classics like Deathtrap, Gosford Park, and Murder by Death. Bestselling crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) supposedly committed suicide just after celebrating his 85th birthday with his extended family. But not everyone was satisfied that the death was a suicide—least of all Benoit Blanc, who ultimately revealed the truth in a fittingly dramatic fashion.

 

Fresh off his stint as James Bond, Craig clearly found Blanc a refreshing counter to the 007 franchise, and he and Johnson soon committed to filming a sequel: 2022's Glass Onion, inspired particularly by the Christie-based "tropical getaway" whodunnit Evil Under the Sun (1982) and an under-appreciated 1973 gem called The Last of Sheila. Blanc traveled to the private island of tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) for a murder-mystery weekend with Bron's coterie of influencer friends. Naturally, someone was actually murdered, and Blanc had to solve it.

 

Josh Brolin plays fiery parish priest Monseigneur Jefferson Wicks.

YouTube/Netflix

 

Wicks' murder has the all-star cast completely stumped.

YouTube/Netflix

 

This time, Craig is joined by another all-star cast. Josh Brolin plays the victim, the fire-and-brimstone-spewing Monseigneur Jefferson Wicks; Josh O'Connor plays a young priest named Rev. Jud Duplenticy; Glenn Close plays a devout churchgoer named Martha Delacroix, Wick's loyal helper; Mila Kunis plays local police chief Geraldine Scott; Jeremy Renner plays town doctor Nat Sharp; Kerry Washington plays uptight lawyer Vera Draven; Daryl McCormack plays aspiring politician Cy Draven; Thomas Haden Church plays groundskeeper Samson Holt; Andrew Scott plays bestselling author Lee Ross; and Cailee Spaeny plays Simone Vivane, a disabled former classical cellist.

 

As always, the less one knows the specifics of a Knives Out movie, the better, since the fun is in watching the twists and turns as the mystery du jour unfolds. What's clear from the trailer is that in Wake Up Dead Man, we're dealing with a classic locked-room puzzle. The monseigneur gives his usual fiery sermon to his assembled congregation; then, in plain view of everyone, he walks "into a sealed concrete box." A mere 30 seconds later, he is dead. Can Blanc unravel this "unsolvable" holy mystery? We're betting he can, with his usual sly panache.

 

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery hits select theaters on November 26, 2025. It will start streaming on Netflix on December 12, 2025.

Credit: Netflix

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Posted Tuesday 9 September 2025 at 1:55 pm AEST (my time).

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