Wake up live fan! Knives Out 3 casts its first round of actors

We can have the “there are no movie stars anymore” conversation ad nauseam, but the new generation is really giving the discourse a run for its money. Up-and-comers are getting snatched up by famed filmmakers left and right, with more repeat actor-director pairs emerging what feels like every month. Two of the newest additions to this illustrious group of Hollywood’s new A-list are Cailee Spaeny and Josh O’Connor, who’ve stayed booked and busy, particularly since appearing in Priscilla and Challengers, respectively.

The latest director to bring these two into the fold—and the first to think to bring them together—is Rian Johnson, who recently cast them as two of the leads in his upcoming Knives Out threequel, Wake Up Dead Man. (The news was first reported by What’s On Netflix and later confirmed by Deadline.) There are no further details about either of their roles as of this writing, but let’s note that Josh O’Connor really, really loves the movie Ratatouille. While he may have to wait a while to star in a remake of that particular film (which would be the first Disney live-action project this writer would be genuinely excited about), he may get to play a little cat-and-mouse game of his own in the coming whodunnit.

If these two do end up chasing each other’s tails, Spaeny would obviously be the cat. While she had appeared in a few TV series like Devs and Mare Of Easttown before, Spaeny really burst onto the scene as the lead in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, for which she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 2023. She also held her own opposite Kirsten Dunst in Alex Garland’s Civil War, and is set to star in Alien: Romulus later this year.

Josh O’Connor already had a slightly higher profile with roles in Emma and God’s Own Country, as well as an Emmy win for portraying King Charles III in The Crown, but truly went big time this year with his dual appearances as Arthur in Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera and Patrick in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers. The actor clearly impressed Johnson in at least the latter; “So I loved loved LOVED ‘Challengers,’” the director posted on Twitter/X last month. “didn’t know what to expect, and walked out of the theater totally buzzing… Seriously IT’S SO GOOD.”

Last week, Johnson announced the title of his next Benoit Blanc mystery, which was taken from a 1997 U2 song. “I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is. 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,” he wrote. Daniel Craig has also been confirmed to return as the titular detective in the film, which is currently set for a 2025 release. What’s On Netflix suggested that Lindsay Lohan and Tom Hardy were also in talks for the film, but nothing has been confirmed yet. We’ll let you know if that’s just a red herring as more news rolls in.