Rian Johnson Would Be “Thrilled” To Make ‘Knives Out’ Movies “The Rest of My Life”

Rian Johnson isn’t done playing detective—and not by a long shot. Despite his $450M Netflix deal for ‘Knives Out’ and its two sequels now officially wrapped with ‘Wake Up Dead Man,’ the filmmaker made it clear at the BFI London Film Festival that he’s in no rush to bury Benoit Blanc.

Speaking after the world premiere on Thursday night, Johnson looked more like a filmmaker just getting started than one ready to hang up his gloves.

I don’t feel burnt out doing these at all. If anything, I feel energized after doing this one. As long as audiences want to keep seeing it, and Daniel and I are still having fun making them—and still feel like we can come up with stuff that feels not just fresh, but a fresh challenge for us—I think that’ll translate to a new experience for the audience.

The writer-director even went a step further, declaring, “For now, I’d be thrilled to keep making these for the rest of my life.” That’s quite the career plan from a guy who once split the Star Wars fandom in two. With ‘Knives Out,’ Johnson seems to have found his comfort zone.

These comments come only a few months after Deadline reported that Johnson and his ‘Knives Out’ lead, Craig, were “not happy” with Netflix’s “business model.” Their ire was directed specifically at 2022’s ‘Glass Onion’ not getting a proper theatrical run. According to Deadline’s sources, the ‘Knives Out’ sequel could have ended up making $600M worldwide if it had been released in theaters. ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ will have a two-week theatrical bow on only 600 screens in November.

The latest entry, ‘Wake Up Dead Man,’ opened the 2025 London Film Festival on Wednesday night, with Johnson and an incredible cast: Daniel Craig (once again doing his honey-drizzled Southern accent thing), Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington, and Andrew Scott.

The film follows Blanc as he investigates the mysterious death of Brolin’s firebrand priest—because of course Josh Brolin plays a firebrand priest—with O’Connor as a fellow clergyman-slash-prime suspect.

Say what you will about Johnson’s cinema of cleverness, but few modern filmmakers have managed to turn a whodunit into a bona fide pop-culture franchise. If ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ lands millions of eyeballs on Netflix, then I’m sure his contract will be re-upped—but probably not in the same ballpark as that ridiculous $450M two-film deal.

Johnson recently confirmed that his next project will be a “standalone” sci-fi film. The genesis of the project, he said, came from an idea he had right after making ‘Looper.’