Knives Out 3: Wake Up Dead Man Embraces Agatha Christie's Classic Mystery Structure

Rian Johnson revealed that Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is closer to Agatha Christie’s classic detective stories than previous films in the mystery franchise. Daniel Craig leads Wake Up Dead Man as Detective Benoit Blanc, joined by an ensemble that includes Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Josh O’Connor, Thomas Haden Church, and Daryl McCormack.

Speaking at Deadline‘s Contenders London event, the writer, director, and producer of the Knives Out franchise said that Wake Up Dead Man is more traditional in structure than Knives Out and Glass Onion. Read his comments below:

The reality of this movie, it has almost like a more traditional murder mystery structure. This is how most Agatha Christie books work, where in the first act you meet all the suspects, you meet the protagonist, who’s not the detective. Then the murder happens, and the detective shows up.

The Knives Out franchise began in 2019 and has become one of modern cinema’s most successful original franchises. Lionsgate’s Knives Out grossed $310 million worldwide and earned Johnson an Oscar Nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Netflix then acquired two sequels, with Glass Onion premiering in 2022, and Wake Up Dead Man set to release in late 2025. Johnson and Craig’s return marks one of Netflix’s biggest film events of 2025.

2019’s Knives Outcentered on the dysfunctional Thrombey family and the mysterious death of their patriarch, while Glass Onion followed tech mogul Miles Bron’s lavish, and deadly, murder mystery game on his remote Greek island. Both films received critical acclaim, with Knives Out holding a 97% critics’ score and Glass Onion a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Johnson’s comments and creative direction signal a return to traditional whodunit storytelling, with suspense building gradually as each character’s motivations are exposed. Johnson’s first Knives Out film already drew heavy comparisons to Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries, and it seems that the new installment will lean into that influence more than ever.

By utilizing a structured, three-act format, Johnson appears to be channeling Christie’s signature mix of intrigue, humor, and moral ambiguity that became traditional in the murder mystery genre, rather than Glass Onion‘s satirical excess.

While Knives Out investigated a wealthy family’s secrets and Glass Onion exposed tech-world ego and duplicity, Wake Up Dead Man seems to be leaning into a purer, character-driven mystery that mirrors Christie’s famous pacing and gradual unraveling of motives before Benoit Blanc arrives at the crime scene.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is set to release in select theaters November 26 and on Netflix December 12.