In Knives Out, Southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc famously described his investigation into the death of writer Harlan Thrombey as a case with a hole in the center, “a doughnut.” Turns out, Knives Out is potentially a franchise with a hole in the center, at least as far as distribution is concerned. That’s because creator Rian Johnson‘s deal with Netflix comes to an end with the release of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the third in his series of films starring Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc.Yet, Johnson doesn’t see the end of his collaboration with Netflix as the end of Blanc’s career. Speaking at a screening of Wake Up Dead Man at the BFI London Film Festival (via Variety), Johnson declared, “I don’t feel burnt out doing these at all. If anything I feel energized after doing this one… So 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.”cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});It’s hard to imagine that audiences are going to be tired of Blanc and his adventures. Knives Out and its first sequel Glass Onion both thrilled audiences, not just because of Craig’s delicious performance, but also because of the films’ all-star casts and the movies’ sharp social satire. Like Poker Face, the Johnson-created televisions series starring Natasha Lyonne as a Columbo-style sleuth, the Knives Out franchise brings back the mysteries that audiences once loved and updates them for modern times.More than the audiences, the bigger question may involve Johnson’s star Craig, who famously expressed exasperation with his most famous ongoing character, James Bond. On the press tour for 2015’s Spectre, Craig said “I rather break this glass and slit my wrists” than play the spy once again. And even though he did in fact suit up for Bond one more time, alongside his Knives Out co-star Ana De Armas for No Time to Die, it’s clear that he had grown tired of the character. Although Dave Bautista, who appeared in Spectre as a thug, reported that Craig was much sunnier and happier during the shooting of that movie, we can’t say how much more Blanc Craig has in him.That only leaves the distributor. Knives Out was originally distributed by Lionsgate and Johnson most recently worked with Universal, who distributes Poker Face. Furthermore, he remains friendly with Kathleen Kennedy, despite the ongoing furor about his Star Wars outing The Last Jedi. It’s hard to imagine that some studio wouldn’t be willing to make a deal with him, especially for a series as reliably popular as Knives Out.All of which suits Johnson just fine. “For now, I’d be thrilled to keep making these for the rest of my life,” he told London Film Fest attendees, promising many more holes as long as some company will hand out his doughnuts.Wake Up Dead Man releases to theaters on November 26 and on Netflix on December 12, 2025.The post Rian Johnson Wants Knives Out to Outlive Netflix appeared first on Den of Geek.