Rian Johnson’s New Movie Was Harder To Write Than Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Rian Johnson reveals why his new movie, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, was a more difficult undertaking than his sole entry into the Star Wars franchise. Following 2017’s Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Johnson kicked off his now iconic whodunit franchise with 2019’s Knives Out, introducing Daniel Craig’s Detective Benoit Blanc.

With Knives Out and 2022’s Glass Onion, Blanc was established as the series’ recurring central character, who takes on cases that expose corruption among the rich and powerful. This year sees Knives Out become a trilogy with Wake Up Dead Man, an entry that also delves into different perspectives on religion and how faith can be weaponized.

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Todd Gilchrist for Wake Up Dead Man, Johnson discussed how the third outing’s themes about faith were what made it one of his most difficult movies to write. The director actually suggests that “[getting] into that puzzle-building mindset” is relatively easy, a skill he has developed as a writer. Check out his comments below:

ScreenRant: Rian, after three of these movies, is it easier to get into that puzzle-building mindset because of building up muscle memory, or is it one of those things where you leave everything on the table so the next time it’s that much more difficult?

Rian Johnson: You’d think it’d get easier, but it don’t. [Laughs] It’s not; it’s getting harder. This was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever written – not just of these movies, but ever. This one was really, really tough.

But I don’t know how much of it had to do with the puzzle element of it, because that’s just a bit like doing a crossword puzzle. As a writer, you can figure that out.

Johnson goes on to say that “The real challenge with this one was that it tries to have a multifaceted conversation about faith in the context of this big, entertaining murder mystery. That’s something really personal to me, and it’s something I wanted to get right.” Wake Up Dead Man‘s cast includes many characters who depend on religion, and not in a positive way.

Daniel Craig and Josh O'Connor in a church in Wake Up Dead Man — Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor in a church in Wake Up Dead Man

Wake Up Dead Man‘s story primarily revolves around Father Jud (Josh O’Connor), a relatively new priest who wants to share the loving and forgiving approach to Christianity he believes saved his life with others. He is assigned to work with Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), who wields fear and judgment over his congregation to maintain his cult of personality.

When Wicks is killed in a seemingly impossible way, Jud is the prime suspect. Benoit Blanc, a devout atheist, arrives and begins to delve into the reasons several of Wicks’ followers may have wanted to kill him. Throughout, Blanc and Jud engage in conversation about what the church truly represents, with the detective being genuinely moved by how Jud speaks to people.

“I wanted the movie to genuinely come at this topic and not just tiptoe around it to not offend anyone,” says Johnson. “At the same time, I wanted it to have a generous spirit and not to feel didactic or finger-wagging, or like it had a message.” The characters all make their conflicting beliefs very clear, to push conversation without the movie itself feeling didactic.

Johnson shares that this was “tough” to get right, and it meant “a lot of writing and rewriting and then rewriting the rewriting.” But the largely positive critical reception of Wake Up Dead Man indicates that he accomplished just this. Fans have another satisfying whodunit which explores a different aspect of corruption, and what it means to let go of hate and be forgiven.