Wake Up Useless Man Embraces Agatha Christie's Basic Thriller Construction

Rian Johnson has revealed that Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is nearer to Agatha Christie’s basic detective tales than earlier movies within the thriller franchise. Daniel Craig leads the homicide thriller sequence as Detective Benoit Blanc. Knives Out has develop into considered one of trendy cinema’s most profitable unique franchises since its debut in 2019.

Wake Up Useless Man unites Craig with an ensemble solid that features Glenn Shut, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Josh O’Connor, Thomas Haden Church, and Daryl McCormack.

Talking at Deadline‘s Contenders London occasion, the author, director, and producer of the Knives Out franchise stated that Wake Up Useless Man is extra conventional in construction than Knives Out and Glass Onion. Learn his feedback under:

The truth of this film, it has nearly like a extra conventional homicide thriller construction. That is how most Agatha Christie books work, the place within the first act you meet all of the suspects, you meet the protagonist, who’s not the detective. Then the homicide occurs, and the detective reveals up.

The Knives Out franchise started in 2019 with Lionsgate’s Knives Out, which grossed $310 million worldwide and earned Johnson an Academy Award Nomination for Finest Unique Screenplay. Netflix then acquired two sequels, with Glass Onion premiering in 2022, and Wake Up Useless Man set to launch in late 2025. Johnson and Craig’s return marks considered one of Netflix’s greatest movie occasions of 2025.

2019’s Knives Outcentered on the dysfunctional Thrombey household and the mysterious dying of their patriarch, whereas Glass Onion adopted tech mogul Miles Bron’s lavish, and lethal, homicide thriller recreation on his distant Greek island. Each movies obtained essential acclaim, with Knives Out holding a 97% critics’ rating and Glass Onion a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Johnson’s feedback and artistic route sign a return to conventional whodunit storytelling, with suspense constructing progressively as every character’s motivations are uncovered. Johnson’s first Knives Out movie already drew heavy comparisons to Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries, and evidently the brand new installment will lean into that affect greater than ever.

By using a structured, three-act format, Johnson seems to be channeling Christie’s signature mixture of intrigue, humor, and ethical ambiguity that grew to become conventional within the homicide thriller style, fairly than Glass Onion’s satirical extra.

Whereas Knives Out investigated a rich household’s secrets and techniques and Glass Onion uncovered tech-world ego and duplicity, Wake Up Useless Man appears to be leaning right into a purer, character-driven thriller that mirrors Christie’s well-known pacing and gradual unraveling of motives earlier than Benoit Blanc arrives on the crime scene.

Wake Up Useless Man: A Knives Out Thriller is ready to launch in choose theaters November 26 and on Netflix December 12.