Knives Out 3, now officially titled Wake Up Dead Man, is set to bring fresh murder and a fresh new look for Daniel Craig to the 2025 movie schedule. Not to mention, it also features another star-studded cast that includes Josh O’Connor, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, and Jeremy Renner (despite his silly role as himself in Glass Onion). Along with them, Josh Brolin, another Marvel alum joined the latest Knives Out mystery, and now he's opening up about it!
Since we are still waiting on a trailer, much of this movie’s plot and characters remain as much a mystery to solve as the perpetual murder of the film. What we do know about Wake Up Dead Man is that Josh Brolin seems to have a serious role in it.
The Dune alum was recently asked at New York Comic Con, via People, about his role in Knives Out 3, and the Sicario actor slipped us a crumb in response:
I can't say what I played. It scared me, which I wanted to be scared.
Could this be his most intense role yet? That’s a tall order given he played the overarching villain Thanos in the MCU. Anything that can shake Thanos makes me worried about what this film has in store, but in a good way. I don’t think the Avengers: Infinity War actor is hinting at his character being the culprit. That would be too easy. Although maybe he’s trying to throw us off his tracks…
Honestly, anything’s possible when it comes to director Rian Johnson’s Oscar-nominated murder mystery series, and I gave up a long time ago trying to predict the twists and turns. Knives Out was so successful with audiences that the Star Wars: The Last Jedi director scored a huge deal with Netflix for the franchise’s sequels, making the Knives Out films some of the best on the legacy streamer. The Outer Range star says that’s not an accident with the Brick filmmaker at the helm, and it’s why he was a fan of the films previously, explaining:
I loved the acting in both of them. I preferred the first one, and the third one felt more like the first one. [Rian] doesn't come off as this, but he has this incredible control over his set. You know, he just has a major presence that reminds me of Denis [Villeneuve, Dune and Sicario director], that reminds me of the Cohens, that reminds me of those types of directors. And he's a great writer. … I read it and I was just like, 'God, this is so well written. We just don't read things like this anymore.'
While you can’t deny the quality of the writing, there's also no denying the star power that propels these movies. As Kerry Washington put it, it’s like summer camp for the actors, where you can’t wait to see which celebrity friends hop off the bus onto the set. When it was announced there would be a third installment of the franchise, fans took to the internet to share some pretty unhinged dream castlists too, showing how much anticipation there is to see this ensemble together.
In Brolin’s opinion, there couldn’t be a more perfect group of actors for this movie, as he said:
It turned out that it was a cast, a lot of people who I had worked with, a lot of people who I loved and hadn't met yet, like Andrew Scott and Josh O'Connor, and people like that. Then doing it turned out, I mean, still one of my favorite jobs that I've ever had.
Those are just the main actors. One of the best parts about the Knives Out mysteries has to be all the celebrity cameos sprinkled in. We can absolutely count on a Joseph Gordon-Levitt cameo given the 500 Days of Summer actor has appeared in every Rian Johnson film in some way shape or form.
So, overall, I'm feeling the same kind of excitement Brolin is feeling, and I can't wait to see him and cast together on screen.
There are only so many guesses and assumptions to be made though when it comes to the mystery that's about to unfold. While I’ll eat up every behind-the-scenes teaser the cast has to offer, I really need a trailer soon.
We know the film wrapped in August thanks to Jeremy Renner, so hopefully, a teaser trailer will drop soon that includes Brolin's scary character so we can have more to analyze. Until then, if you need a refresher on where we last left the genius detective, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is available to stream with a Netflix Subscription.
