It might be some years before we see dedicated detective Benoit Blanc solve another convoluted murder mystery, but that doesn’t mean filmmaker Rian Johnson isn’t already getting the gears turning about a new Knives Out installment.
Following the Netflix release of Wake Up Dead Man — the third in the series, which traces the fallout of the killing of a domineering monsignor of a close-knit church congregation in upstate New York — the Poker Face creator said he has some inklings about where he wants to stretch the whodunit genre next.
“I have some basic, elemental, conceptual ideas,” he told Entertainment Weekly in an interview. “Like, ‘OK, it’d be interesting if it were this kind of thing’ kernels.”
The Looper helmer clarified, “I don’t have actual concrete ideas. I don’t have a theme yet, I don’t have a location. It’s really pretty vague, and I feel like it’s good to kinda keep it vague until I’m ready to actually sit down and write it.”
Indeed, though all of the Knives Out features, from the 2019 Ana de Armas starrer to the 2022 eat-the-rich tale of Glass Onion, have struck comedic tones, they’ve varied in their cinematic ambience, with the former striking an Agatha Christie vein and the latter leaning into campy hedonism. As Johnson has discussed before, given Wake Up Dead Man‘s setting and resulting exploration of faith, the latest installment carries a darker, more Gothic tone a la Edgar Allan Poe.
Additionally, the director said he aims for the movies to mine the depths of current cultural moments; thus, his next take would need to tap into the zeitgeist.
“Part of making these movies, for me, is reacting to the present moment, not necessarily with current events or politics or culture specifically, but in terms of what we’re all feeling in the world at that moment. The vibe check of the United States and the moment that we’re in,” he noted. “I like that these movies are not timeless, per se, and that they all have one foot in something that is common to all of us in our present moment. So, yeah, I don’t know. I have a vague notion, but trying to keep it vague until it’s time to actually do it.”
But before Johnson can return to that sprawling world, he’ll be tackling a standalone film, which he described as a sci-fi homage to ’70s paranoid thrillers.
After releasing in select theaters Nov. 26, Wake Up Dead Man — which features a star-studded ensemble led by Daniel Craig, Josh Brolin and Josh O’Connor — began streaming on Netflix Dec. 12.
