Knives Out 4 and More Sequels Are on the Table—But Only If One Condition Is Met
Knives Out could keep cutting past its third installment—on one nonnegotiable condition: Rian Johnson stays at the helm. The writer-director says the franchise moves forward only under his watch, setting a firm line for a potential fourth and beyond.
Rian Johnson has one very simple rule for the future of Knives Out: if he is not the one making it, it is not happening. That is the whole ballgame for a fourth movie and beyond.
In a recent chat with Variety, Johnson made it clear he does not treat Benoit Blanc as a hand-offable franchise. He has written and directed all three films so far, and he plans to keep it that way. He does not see Knives Out as IP to be managed; it is something he personally wants to make each time. If that ever changes, he says the series stops.
On the flip side, he is not burned out. After finishing the third movie, he says he feels creatively recharged, and he and Daniel Craig are already noodling on what a potential next case could look like. Craig, of course, is the returning anchor here as Detective Benoit Blanc, and Johnson sounds genuinely attached to working with him. He also basically said he does not get why the team would stop as long as the spark is still there.
'Absolutely not. It is mine. They will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. Similarly, if Daniel stops having fun or decides he does not want to do it anymore, then, as far as I am concerned, the series is over.'
That was Johnson, earlier, when Forbes asked if he would ever hand a Knives Out movie to another filmmaker. So yes, the one condition for future sequels is the same as it has always been: Johnson writes and directs, and Craig is game. Otherwise, no dice.
Where the series stands right now
- Knives Out (2019): the original whodunit that launched Benoit Blanc.
- Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022): the bigger, sunnier sequel.
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025): world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025; in select US theaters today, November 26; streaming on Netflix December 12, 2025.
So, could we get Knives Out 4 (and 5, and 6)? Totally possible — as long as Johnson still wants to make them and Craig is still having fun solving murders in outrageous outfits. If either of those switches flips off, the series goes dark by design.