The Knives Out trilogy has become a modern murder-mystery favorite, and creator Rian Johnson has said he’d love to keep the series going for as long as he can. Now that the third installment, Wake Up Dead Man, starring Daniel Craig, hit Netflix on December 12, fans are already asking: when will Knives Out 4 arrive?
While Johnson doesn’t have a firm plan yet, he shared some early thoughts with Entertainment Weekly. “I have some basic, elemental, conceptual ideas. Like, ‘OK, it’d be interesting if it were this kind of thing’ kernels,” he said in a December 2025 interview.
The Looper director added, “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.”
Each Knives Out film has its own unique vibe. From the 2019 Ana de Armas-led debut to the 2022 Glass Onion, Johnson has played with comedic and cinematic tones — the former leaning into classic Agatha Christie whodunit style, the latter indulging in campy, eat-the-rich satire.
Wake Up Dead Man, set against a Gothic backdrop and exploring themes of faith, marks a darker turn for the franchise, drawing comparisons to Edgar Allan Poe. And according to Johnson, each film is meant to reflect the cultural moment of its release.
“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 explained. “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.”
Don’t expect Knives Out 4 to hit screens immediately. Johnson plans to focus on a standalone film next — a sci-fi homage to ’70s paranoid thrillers — before turning his attention back to the murder-mystery series. But fans can rest assured: the world of Benoit Blanc isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
