It’s official: Benoit Blanc is back, and this time, he’s stepping into his darkest mystery yet. Netflix just dropped a brand-new teaser for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and if the first footage is anything to go by, the whodunnit kingpin Rian Johnson isn’t holding back.
From the jump, the teaser sets the stage for an impossible crime. As the head detective explains:
“A man gives a sermon, he then in plain sight of everyone, walks into a sealed concrete box, and 30 seconds later, that man is lying dead. A classic impossible crime.”
That impossible crime? It’s just the tip of the iceberg.
A Murder in the Pews
Wake Up Dead Man swaps out mansions and private islands for something even more dramatic: the church. The new case begins when young priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is sent to assist the fiery Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). But when a shocking death rattles their flock, the holy setting becomes the backdrop for an unholy mystery.
Enter Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who teams up with police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to solve a crime that seems to defy every rule of logic.
“Every time we make one of these films, it’s fun to think, ‘How can this one explore a whole different corner of this genre?’” Johnson tells Tudum. For Wake Up Dead Man, he drew inspiration from detective fiction legend John Dickson Carr, best known for his mastery of the locked-room mystery. “It’s a side alley of the whodunit genre: the impossible crime. A corpse is found in a locked room, a knife in his back, he is alone, and there are no ways in or out,” Johnson explains. “With such a constrained premise, there are only a few real options to work with. It’s the mystery version of a chess puzzle, with just enough pieces on the board and no more, and a few predetermined moves at your disposal.”
The All-Star Cast
The teaser also gives us our first-look at the cast in action! Johnson has once again assembled a star-studded ensemble to bring the drama to life. Glenn Close appears as devout churchgoer Martha Delacroix, while Thomas Haden Church takes on the role of circumspect groundskeeper Samson Holt. Kerry Washington plays the tightly wound lawyer Vera Draven, alongside Daryl McCormack as her ambitious politician brother, Cy Draven. Jeremy Renner appears as town doctor Nat Sharp, Andrew Scott steps in as the smoldering bestselling author Lee Ross, and Cailee Spaeny plays Simone Vivane, a gifted cellist with secrets of her own.
Together, the cast forms a flock full of red herrings, hidden motives, and shadowy truths waiting to be uncovered.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will open in select theaters on November 26, 2025, before premiering on Netflix on December 12, 2025. Written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman, the film is shaping up to be the darkest and most ambitious chapter yet in the Knives Out saga.
