The “Wake Up Dead Man” team has no plans for a Benoit Blanc Prequel
Although director Rian Johnson’s original crime film spawned a trilogy, he and his producing partner Ram Bergman are hesitant to call it a sequel. Knives out privilege.
During the movie’s premiere on Monday Dead Man’s Wake: The Knives Trilogy“There’s no big picture” when it comes to Netflix’s murder mystery films, each of which stars Daniel Craig as private detective Benoit Blanc, Bergman told Deadline.
“We don’t really look at it as a franchise, we look at it as each movie on its own,” he said on the red carpet at the Motion Picture Academy Museum. “And it feels no different than working on any other movie with Ryan.”
Bergman continued: “The idea is to feel, before every film, does this film feel risky? Does this film feel like a risk? Because if not, what’s the point in doing it? And again, I don’t think we look at it as a franchise. We look at it as, how can we make something different from the first two, how can we make it something really good and special? That’s it.”
“There’s no big picture for franchising. Business people might think that, but we don’t look at it that way,” he said.
While the fourth Knives out– This may be waiting for Benoit, but Johnson has no plans to flesh out the character beyond his ability as the spy thread that connects the films.
He explained: “I don’t know. For me, I feel that Benoit Blanc is the detective, and his mission in these matters is to solve the crime.” “And I don’t want to go beyond that into flashbacks or anything that explains why he became a detective or something like that. I feel like what’s interesting is seeing how he gets involved. But we learn a lot about him by seeing his process and by seeing his relationship with key people. And in that, I think you get a real glimpse into a certain part of his soul.”
in The dead man woke upwhich premiered November 26 in select theaters before becoming available to stream December 12 on Netflix, Benoit is a self-declared “heretic,” but like every character in the ensemble film, he goes through his own spiritual journey while investigating the mysterious death of Msgr. Jefferson Weeks (Josh Brolin) is in a small parish.
Ram Bergman and Rian Johnson attend the premiere of “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” on Netflix on November 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
JC Oliveira/Variety
“With this one, I knew I wanted to ground it a little bit more, and for me, I thought making it about something that was very personal to me would be a way to do that,” Johnson explained. “I was also curious to see if we could make one of these films that remains a Benoit Blanc mystery — so, something big and fun and entertaining and I hope a lot of people will come and see it and have a good time — but also, in a subtle and generous way, that hopefully speaks to faith in America today. So, that was a big challenge.”
In addition to Craig reprising the role of Benoit Blanc, The dead man woke up Stars Josh O’Connor, Mila Kunis, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Daryl McCormack and Thomas Haden Church, plus some other star-studded stars.