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Despite being the dapperly-dressed glue that holds the Knives Out movies together, Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc doesn't show up in upcoming sequel Wake Up Dead Man until 40 minutes in – and if you're a bit gutted by that news, writer-director Rian Johnson suggests you take it up with one of history's most iconic whodunnit writers.
"It's [got] a much more traditional murder mystery structure than the first two. I mean, this is kind of how most of Agatha Christie's books work," Johnson explains to GamesRadar+ in the run-up to the Netflix film's limited theatrical release. "In the first act, you meet all the suspects, then the murder happens, and then the detective shows up. So this was kind of going back to basics; I thought it could be interesting to do that.
"But, also, because the theme of this movie is a little bit more complex – or, not complex, but I just really wanted to get it right in terms of nailing the tone and nailing Jud's character, what religion was to him – having that first act to take that time and really set the table, not just with the suspects and with Jud's point-of-view? It felt like it was worth it. And I thought as long as I can get an actor who can carry this movie for the first 40 minutes, so people aren't saying, 'Wait, where the hell is Daniel?' I'll be fine."
Said actor tasked with easing James Bond fanatics' impatience is Josh O'Connor, whose Rev. Jud Duplenticy is forced to team up with gifted case-cracker Blanc when he's accused of killing Josh Brolin's brutish priest Monsignor Wicks. Following a violent altercation with one of his superiors, the guilt-ridden former boxer is sent to a small-town parish in upstate New York, to assist Wicks in running the church – but quickly finds his new boss's ways of doing things abhorrent, as he watches him swindle certain members of the congregation and relish putting newcomers off with his controversial sermons. He doesn't do well to hide his disdain, which, combined with his past, doesn't do him any favors when Wicks winds up dead – and sets him on a journey of both faith and fact-finding.
"[Josh is] just the best, man. With each of these movies – the first, with Ana de Armas, the second with Janelle [Monáe], and now with Josh – you know, they all have a protagonist who's not Blanc, and the essential thing of that is it has to be somebody who the audience is immediately on board with. Having seen the myriad of other work that Josh had done, and the amount of range that he had, and then also honestly, when we met, I was just like, 'This is somebody I want to be on the movie set with. I think that's going to translate to someone the audience wants to spend the movie with.'"
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery releases in cinemas on November 26, arriving on Netflix worldwide on December 12. For more, check out our guide to all the other upcoming movies heading our way.
