Knives Out 4: Director Rian Johnson teases ‘conceptual ideas’ for next Benoit Blanc mystery

Third instalment of popular whodunit film series is streaming on Netflix

Knives Out director Rian Johnson shared he had “basic, elemental, conceptual ideas” about a fourth movie in the detective mystery series, days after the third released on Netflix.

“I have some basic, elemental, conceptual ideas,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “Like, ‘OK, it’d be interesting if it were this kind of thing’ kernels.”

The third instalment in Johnson’s popular film series, Wake Up Dead Man, sees Daniel Craig return as the enigmatic detective Benoit Blanc to investigate a murder at a local church.

The film also stars Josh O’Connor as young priest Jud Duplenticy, Josh Brolin as the monsignor, and Glenn Close as a parishioner.

Johnson, however, said he would make at least one standalone film before he returned to the whodunit series while confirming that his ideas were still at a nascent stage.

“I don't have actual concrete ideas,” the director said. “I don't have a theme yet, I don't have a location. It is really pretty vague, and I feel like it is good to kinda keep it vague until I'm ready to actually sit down and write it.”

Johnson explained that he placed each Knives Out instalment in the then-tenor of the world when he wrote it, so he only had a “vague notion” of what the next would follow.

“Part of making these movies, for me, is reacting to the present moment,” he said, “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.”

‘Wake Up Dead Man’ marks a departure from the Agatha Christie style of previous Knives Out films (Netflix)

Wake Up Dead Man is getting rave reviews for exploring dark themes, which mark a departure from the Agatha Christie style of the first two films.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

In her four-star review, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey wrote that “Johnson’s cool, clever whodunnit is yet to stumble”.

“Knives Out, the original, was a classic, mahogany-panelled Christie riff; Glass Onion, its sequel, was a sunbaked, deluxe spin on The Last of Sheila,” she noted.

“Now Wake Up Dead Man offers Gothic flair, suitable for a year that’s already featured adaptations of Nosferatu and Frankenstein, with Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights on the horizon.”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is streaming on Netflix.