Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Trailer Breakdown: Daniel Craig tries to solve another murder mystery wittily in the latest trailer

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery moves Benoit Blanc from billionaire islands to a gothic small-town parish, and the new trailer wastes no time establishing its rules. Father Jud Duplenticy stands accused after Monsignor Jefferson Wicks drops dead mid-service in front of the congregation, forcing Blanc to raid a church that brims with secrets, money, and fear.

The footage frames a cleaner whodunit engine than Glass Onion yet leans darker than Knives Out, with candlelit aisles, confessionals, and a graveyard that becomes part of the hunt. Josh O’Connor’s Jud, Josh Brolin’s Wicks, and Glenn Close’s Martha Delacroix lead a suspect pool that also includes Mila Kunis as police chief Geraldine Scott, Kerry Washington and Daryl McCormack as the Dravens.

Andrew Scott is reclusive author Lee Ross, Cailee Spaeny is cellist Simone Vivane, Thomas Haden Church is groundskeeper Samson Holt, and Jeremy Renner is town doctor Nat Sharp. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery opens in select theatres on November 26 before streaming on Netflix from December 12, with Rian Johnson returning to write and direct, and Steve Yedlin and Nathan Johnson back behind the camera and score.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery trailer explained: The “perfectly impossible” church murder?

The trailer for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery opens with a blunt accusation that Jud was the only person on stage when Wicks died, cutting between gasps in the pews and the priest’s shaken denial as he repeats that everyone thinks he did it.

Benoit Blanc arrives to assess a sanctuary that looks holy but feels rigged, scanning the pulpit, the choir loft, and the aisles while local police lock down the exits. Daniel Craig’s Blanc states,

“A perfectly impossible crime.”

Then adds,

“I’m incapable of not solving a crime,”

which sets the tone for a case that he admits goes beyond anything he has experienced. From there, the trailer spools out a parade of motives for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. We get a glimpse of the Wicks' fortune, invoked as leverage that could ruin people if exposed. Martha Delacroix clings to tradition, Samson Holt crosses boundaries in the nave, and the Dravens carry both legal polish and political ambition.

Geraldine Scott becomes Blanc’s day-to-day partner, trading dry asides with him as he dissects timelines and alibis. Blanc declares it is time “to discover what this flock of wicked wolves is hiding,” a line the trailer underscores with stained glass shadows and a quick look at fresh paint on tombstones.

Comedy still bleeds through the dread, which is the franchise’s balance. Kunis drops the meta gag about “Scooby-Doo,” and Blanc, deadpan, answers “Scooby-Dooby-Doo” as the cut pivots to a hidden corridor and a burial plot defaced with rocket-ship doodles. The scene-setting makes the mystery feel tactile without revealing the trick. The edit closes on Blanc’s voice:

“With all the pieces on the table, this crime appears impossible,”

while Jud’s parish wrestles with faith, shame, and small-town loyalties. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery uses those beats to signal a puzzle built on ritual, money, and the stories people tell to stay righteous.

All the suspects in Benoit Blanc’s pews: Cast and character dynamics teased

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery rebuilds the suspects’ gallery around the church. O’Connor’s Jud is earnest and raw, the kind of protagonist who could be either scapegoat or architect. Brolin’s Wicks is a charismatic thunderbolt whose death detonates long-stored grievances. Close’s Martha Delacroix stands protectively near the altar even as whispers about the fortune circle her pew. Kunis’ Geraldine is the procedural spine, bouncing between duty and exasperation as Blanc digs.

Washington’s Vera and McCormack’s Cy operate as a power couple with overlapping motives, Scott’s Lee needles at hidden ties, Spaeny’s Simone layers performance with privacy, Haden Church’s Samson tests limits, and Renner’s Sharp anchors the town’s medical facts. The ensemble is framed so that everyone owns a moment of suspicion, exactly how these films keep the audience honest. As per a Reuters report dated September 7, 2025, Rian Johnson remarked on premiere night,

“We’re trying to do something kind of different each time…This one is a little more gothic in tone, it’s a little darker, but I think it’s still very fun,”

which maps directly onto the cut’s blend of menace and wit. The former James Bond said,

"It's a departure. It's a different kind of movie. But it's still a Benoit Blanc mystery."

Johnson again assembles regular collaborators to steady the frame. Daniel Craig returns as Benoit Blanc with a slightly shaggier look and the same razor for motive and opportunity. Steve Yedlin’s images lean into cool nave light and warm candle flicker, while Nathan Johnson’s score threads the sacred with the sly. Ram Bergman and Katie McNeill produce for T-Street.

Stay tuned for more updates.