Thomas Haden Church is the latest actor to join the cast of “Wake Up Dead Man,” the third installment of Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” franchise starring Daniel Craig as private investigator Benoit Blanc, The Wrap has exclusively learned.
Thomas Haden Church is the eighth new actor added to the ensemble of the 2025 Netflix film, joining Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner and Josh Brolin. Production is set to begin in the U.K. in June.
Plot details for “Knives Out 3” are being kept under wraps, but in his tweet announcing the film’s title, Johnson suggested that “Wake Up Dead Man” would have a different tone than “Knives Out,” which made $310 million at the box office when it was released in 2019 by Lionsgate, and its Netflix-produced 2022 sequel, “Glass Onion.”
“I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is,” Johnson wrote. “There’s a whole tonal spectrum from Carr to Christie, and getting to explore that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc movies.”
Haden Church is currently shooting “Chapter 3” of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga” — the first installment “Chapter 1” will be theatrically released on June 28 followed by “Chapter 2” in August. Both are from Warner Brothers Discovery.
Haden Church scored an Oscar nomination for his performance in Alexander Payne’s 2004 film “Sideways” and recently starred in the Peacock video game adaptation “Twisted Metal.”
Thomas Haden Church is repped by CAA and Jen Turner at Finley Management.
