Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery unveils first image of Daniel Craig as filming begins

Writer/director Rian Johnson has taken to social media to let us all know that filming has officially begun on his new film Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery – which, as you can glean from the title, is indeed the latest installment in the series of murder mysteries that Johnson began with Knives Out in 2019 and continued with Glass Onion (pictured above) in 2022. At the heart of these films is private investigator Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig – and Johnson went ahead and shared a black and white image of Craig on set and in costume, bringing Benoit Blanc back to life on the first day of filming Wake Up Dead Man:

Like Glass Onion, Wake Up Dead Man will be released through the Netflix streaming service. Here’s the logline: Benoit Blanc returns in his most dangerous case yet.

Craig is joined in the cast of this one by Josh O’Connor (Challengers), Glenn Close (Dangerous Liaisons), Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men), Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Kerry Washington (Scandal), Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers), Cailee Spaeny (Civil War), Daryl McCormack (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), and Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3).

Johnson told Tudum that assembling the cast for these mystery films is like “throwing a dinner party. We’ve been very lucky with each of these movies to have gathered some of my favorite actors on the planet, and that’s absolutely the case here. They’re also all lovely folks who get along, which is the dinner party aspect of it. When you’re making an ensemble movie like this I think that’s key.” Johnson also addressed the fact that Renner was already featured in Glass Onion, on the label of Renning Hot habanero chili pepper sauce. “Jeremy’s a great actor who I’ve wanted to work with for a long time. I was very relieved he thought the hot sauce thing was funny! He’s playing a proper part in this one, we’ll keep the sauce off screen. Maybe we’ll sneak a few bottles onto the catering table.“

Are you looking forward to Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and are you glad to hear that filming has begun? Take a look at the first image of detective Benoit Blanc, then let us know by leaving a comment below.