Like with Agatha Christie stories, Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” films focus on a super sleuth solving a mystery – usually with a little help.
Though Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc character serves as the lead across the films, he’s generally been aided by someone else in the ensemble. In the first film, it was Ana de Armas’s Marta. In the second, it was Janelle Monae’s Helen.
With the upcoming “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” Johnson confirms to Empire Online that Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud character will take on that role in this outing: “He ends up partnering with Blanc on solving this mystery; it’s very much [Jud’s] journey.”
The film is also going to be one that tests Blanc, confirming hints this will be adopting a darker and more serious tone than the prior one:
“Blanc has the biggest personal journey in this one. Benoit has to engage with [the mystery] in a different way. He’s in a very different place than in the previous two films. Daniel and I had a lot of fun thinking about where Blanc is at in his life. And I think he’s going through some s—.
Blanc is seeing it as, ‘It’s just a murder, I can solve this.’ The way the murder presents itself is the opposite of that. It’s framed as an impossible thing that could never have happened, almost miraculous in nature. And Blanc, as the rationalist, is coming in to do what he does, and prove that wrong.”
Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church co-star in “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” which will be released on Netflix on December 12th.
