Rian Johnson filled Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre with glittering stars on Saturday night when he premiered the third entry in his whodunit series, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. The screening — easily the festival’s hottest ticket — reunited Johnson with his signature blend of razor-sharp humor and mystery, but pushed the franchise into markedly darker, more existential territory.
“This is my favorite place to be in the world,” Johnson told the audience, echoing the warm receptions that greeted the first two films. But while the quips and pop-culture asides that have become franchise hallmarks remain (expect nods to Star Wars and Scooby-Doo), Johnson said this installment returns the series to the older, gloomier roots of the genre — a move he traced to writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, John Dickson Carr and the Father Brown stories of G.K. Chesterton.
A priest, a parish and a murder — the new mystery
At the center of Wake Up Dead Man is a murder tied to a local church and its congregation. Daniel Craig’s detective Benoit Blanc is back, unraveling a case that Johnson described as more ambitious and gothic than previous entries. The film threads themes of truth, lies and grace throughout its plot, pairing the franchise’s trademark cleverness with a heavier moral weight.
Josh O’Connor plays Jud Duplenticy, a young priest pulled into the mystery, with Josh Brolin as the Monsignor and Glenn Close portraying a devout parishioner whose loyalties and secrets help drive the story. The ensemble also includes Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Daryl McCormack, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Thomas Haden Church and Cailee Spaeny — a constellation of names that turned the red carpet into an all-star reunion.
Cast reactions: gleeful, grateful and a little awed
After the screening the cast spoke about the thrill of joining Johnson’s rotating “Knives Out” ensembles. Jeremy Renner likened the experience to winning the lottery; Kerry Washington compared the cast to an all-star team. Craig — beaming — joked that assembling so many big names felt like “herding cats,” a compliment to the way Johnson stages crowd-pleasing, star-packed mysteries while keeping a tight narrative center.
Daniel Craig on Benoit Blanc — done or not yet?
On the Toronto International Film Festival red carpet, Craig, 57, reflected with gratitude on the role that followed his long run as James Bond. “How lucky am I to get to play something like this?” he said, noting the pleasure of inhabiting a character so different from 007. When asked if this third film might be his final turn as Blanc, Craig deflected with a laugh — “Who told you that?” — and made clear the decision would hinge on whether Johnson wrote another script and whether it felt right. Johnson himself has previously signaled that he’ll continue to make new, genre-shifting entries as long as he and Craig enjoy the work and the films remain fresh.
The release plan and how Netflix is handling theaters
The Knives Out franchise has taken an unconventional path through the streaming era. The original 2019 Knives Out opened with a traditional theatrical run and went on to gross roughly $312 million worldwide. Netflix then purchased the sequel package for an estimated $400 million. Although the streamer prioritizes home viewing, it has occasionally given the series theatrical windows: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery played in about 696 theaters and drew an estimated $15 million its first week of release. Following that hybrid approach, Wake Up Dead Man will open in select theaters on Nov. 26 for a two-week run before landing on Netflix on Dec. 12.
What to expect
Festival reactions suggest Johnson has sharpened his formula without merely repeating it. Fans can expect a weightier mystery grounded in moral questions and cloaked in gothic atmosphere, all while keeping the clever set pieces and ensemble interplay that made the earlier films so entertaining. With Toronto International Film Festival running Sept. 4–14 and the film already generating buzz, moviegoers will soon see whether Benoit Blanc’s latest case pushes the series into a new, more serious phase — and whether Craig will ultimately choose to keep playing the perceptive, idiosyncratic detective.
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