Rian Johnson is on a roll with his Knives Out movies, as Daniel Craig’s third outing as enigmatic detective Benoit Blanc has been pulling in some impressive reviews during its limited run in theaters ahead of its Netflix debut next week. The big question is what comes next for the franchise, and for Johnson, that doesn’t seem to be one thing that fans have been suggesting for a long while – a Knives Out Muppet movie. However, while the director is dubious about how it would all work, it seems that the idea has already become a reality…kind of.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third movie starring Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, who has another devious and twisty case to solve. While recently speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Johnson addressed the idea of bringing Jim Henson’s Muppets into the franchise, saying:
“On the Internet, the notion of a Knives Out Muppet movie comes up a lot, and I wanted to get you guys together here so that I could explain why that’s a bad idea. It’s not a ‘bad idea,’ but I love and respect Muppet movies too much, and also Benoit Blanc movies. They’re so different. The reality is, if you put Muppets in a Benoit Blanc movie, it would feel totally wrong because they would be getting murdered.”
There are other alternatives, of course, but Johnson doesn’t think having Benoit Blanc appearing as a character in a future Muppet movie would work either. He added:
“The alternative is to just stick Benoit Blanc into a Muppet movie, which admittedly would be very fun, but would kind of break the reality of what Blanc is.”
‘Sesame Street’ Has Already Turned ‘Knives Out’ Into a Muppet Sketch
It seems that despite Johnson’s trepidation about possibly ruining the franchise by trying to combine it with a Muppet franchise he is a massive fan of, Netflix recently did a little cross promotion for Wake Up Dead Man by sharing a clip of their new Sesame Street acquisition, which features a full-on puppet parody of Knives Out – Forks Out: A Sesame Street Whodunit?
Obviously, the sketch is aimed at educating and delighting younger audiences, but as a marketing gimmick for Netflix, the timing must seem like perfect serendipity. The streamer recently acquired the rights to show new seasons of Sesame Street, and the purchase is already paying off in the most unexpected way.
However, when it comes to Wake Up Dead Man, the best promotion possible is from the film’s recent run in cinemas, which was not only a huge success in terms of performance, but also boosted the film’s review scores and making its Netflix debut a guaranteed hit. The film currently holds a 93% critics score and 94% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, not bad for a third movie – which, other than in pre-planned trilogies like The Lord of the Rings, have a tendency to let things slip.
The future of the Knives Out franchise is now unwritten, as this new movie is the second of two sequels commissioned by Netflix following the success of Johnson’s original movie. Whatever comes next, it seems unlikely to involve Muppets…which is a little disappointing, but on the whole, probably for the best.
- Release Date
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November 26, 2025
- Runtime
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140 minutes
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