Rian Johnson has hinted at Knives Out 4 with Daniel Craig and hopes to cast Meryl Streep. Wake Up Dead Man will arrive in 2025 before the next mystery begins.
If there’s one thing Rian Johnson has shown us these past few years, it’s that the whodunit isn’t defunct but it simply needed a new wardrobe. The Knives Out series has blossomed from a sleeper success into a cultural juggernaut, the quintessential cinematic comfort food for a generation exhausted by CGI superheroes. But now as we’re about to do the third, Wake Up Dead Man (in late 2025), the conversation is already shifting to the future. And that future has a name: Meryl Streep.
Rian Johnson tends to keep things close to the vest. He is notoriously not in possession of “wish lists” of actors, instead allowing the script to determine the casting. However, he has just broken his own rule in an interview with IndieWire, revealing that Meryl Streep for a future mystery is the one and only person he wants.
“I feel like you’d slot into a murder mystery very well,”
–Johnson said
Addressing the screen legend, It’s a match made in cinematic heaven. The Knives Out world is very much about tone, a sort of heightened reality where camp has real emotion. Streep is the unchallenged sovereign of this discrepancy. From the grotesque comedy of Death Becomes Her to the icy satire of The Devil Wears Prada, she can portray a matriarchal antagonist or a flustered intellectual counterpoint to Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc.
The campaign to get her is already in-house. Kerry Washington, star of the soon to Wake Up Dead Man, has gone public with her intention to “encourage” her former co-star to come aboard. In Hollywood, that sort of peer-to-peer validation is often what seals the deal.
Part of the brilliance of the Knives Out approach is its ”revolving door” policy. Except for the immaculately clad Benoit Blanc, no one makes it to the sequel. This “literary hex” format eliminates the “Cabot Cove Syndrome” (“where murder just keeps following one person around”) and keeps the storyline fresh.
According to Variety, This setup has come to serve as the franchise’s secret weapon in recruiting. It’s easy to see Streep, one of the finest actresses of her generation, expressing hesitation about signing a six-movie deal for a Marvel franchise, but a “one-and-done” invitation to play a quirky suspect in a glamorous location? That’s an easy yes. It gives Johnson the ability to book “Avengers-level” casts in what are basically mid-budget conversations in rooms.
“Daniel and I make these films as partners. The moment either of us feels even a little unsure, we’ll stop.
—Johnson said.
We have the 2025 release to work through before any Streep dreams. Wake Up Dead Man will move the satirical focus from the tech disruptors of Glass Onion to religious organizations. With a cast that includes Josh Brolin, Andrew Scott, and the legendary Glenn Close, the film appears to be trying out working with Hollywood royalty—perhaps a dry run for the “Streep Proposition.”
But the most intriguing twist may emerge behind the scenes. The massive $450 million four-picture deal Johnson inked with Netflix officially ends with this third film. This makes Knives Out 4 a “free agent.”
Johnson has spoken openly about his preference for the theatrical experience, and with the rights possibly coming available, we may get a huge bidding war among streamers and traditional studios. This grants Johnson and Daniel Craig extraordinary leverage. If they want to get Meryl Streep to the movie, not just the television movie, they can insist on a full theatrical run as a prerequisite for the next film.
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Asking for Meryl Streep in Knives Out now means the game is no longer a hit series, it’s trying to become a cinematic institution. In the age when franchise and reboots rule the roost, this franchise is the last holdout of the “adult blockbuster”—films that are propelled by dialogue, character and wit rather than explosions.
“When it’s all said and done, you make the movie and you just can’t see anybody else playing that role.”
—Johnson said.
Rian Johnson’s vision of Knives Out is constantly changing and deepening, and with the chance of Meryl Streep joining Daniel Craig in another film round, the franchise is moving closer to become a trip-holiday cinematic tradition. The stage is set for bigger names, bigger bids and an even grander reinvention of the modern whodunit with Wake Up Dead Man coming in 2025 and the fourth film currently in “free agent” limbo. If Streep makes her way into this world, it wouldn’t just be casting — it’d be history.
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Find out how Peacemaker Season 2 ends on a heartbreaking note. Jennifer Holland reveals the emotional finale that sets up James Gunn's new DC Universe.
Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 8 Full Nelson brought a rare achievement in genre TV, it provided a gratifying emotional payoff for the central characters that also ended with an apocalyptic, brink- of- war cliffhanger with ramifications for the entire DC Universe. This narrative paradox is exactly the reason why star Jennifer Holland, who plays Emilia Harcourt, referred to everything as “heartbreaking in retrospect”. Her appraisal captures the uneasy duality of James Gunn’s filmmaking in which real emotional breakthroughs are all too often punished by the brutal requirements of survival and franchise restructuring.
While the final episode was more focused on “smaller, character moments” that were designed to provide emotional closure, it also featured critical, major revelations that shaped the DCU. The perceived heartbreak is because Holland’s character, Emilia Harcourt, and her team, the “11th Street Kids” believe Chris Smith/Peacemaker (John Cena) gave himself up to A.R.G.U.S.. Holland later spoke about the emotional torment of this scenario, in particular discussing the “heartbreak of none of them knowing that Chris was kidnapped”.
The resulting effect is one of supreme narrative irony. The season expertly resolved the emotional complexity between Chris and Harcourt. Harcourt, who is defined by her trauma and fear of intimacy, actually exposed herself. But the external story cruelly supplants that hard won trust with the heavy gravity of perceived abandonment. The team manages to bail Chris out of prison, only to learn he’s already gone. They are to surmise that Chris went and left them immediately after their connecting on such an emotional level. This isn’t the grief of mourning a death, but the pain of a betrayal, maximizing the tragic payoff, and ensuring that Harcourt’s future arc will be driven by this unexpurgated pain and misunderstanding.
The near-fatal shooting Harcourt suffered in the Season 1 finale (during the battle with the Butterflies at Coverdale Ranch) left the character deeply scarred both physically and mentally, setting up her complicated return in Season 2. “The Harcourt and Peacemaker tension is very personal trauma,” Holland explained. After her near-death experience, Harcourt came back, according to Holland, “not operating the way she” was, still pushing people away as a mental defense mechanism. The whole of season 2 was about gradually tearing those walls down to nothing, so the final banishment is a particularly vitriolic reward for her emotional journey.
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Now, in a flashback sequence, the storyline finally gave us the truth about the hinted-at “night on the boat,” which served as crucial motivation behind their secretive relationship. The sequence allowed Chris and Harcourt, as DC Comics rivals, to commiserate over professional frustrations at the DC Comics sandwich shop Big Belly Burger, and together they stumble upon a bizarre 90s rock trivia question: a “rock cruise” with the band Nelson. Two enjoyed what was called a “magical, world-shattering, panoramic kiss.” This was, without a doubt, a “pivotal turning point” for their relationship.
The finale’s structure was ultimately defined by the necessity of setting up DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. Regarding a potential third season, Gunn was clear it was not planned “at the moment,” stating: “This is about the wider DCU and other stories this will play out right now.”
Gunn said the Season 2 finale specifically aims to “set up the world of the 2027 DCU cinematic feature, Man of Tomorrow“. As DC Studios co-CEO, Gunn said his focus is “propping up and maintaining and repositioning the big diamond properties that DC has,” like Batman and Superman, but also taking lesser-known characters such as Peacemaker — and creating new “diamond properties” within the franchise.
This demand was why the final episode felt like an “extended teaser” or “backdoor pilot for other DCU projects,” as some critics observed. The narrative goal of the end of Season 2 was assimilation, not resolution. Tying up the Salvation cliffhanger in a third season of the TV show may have conflicted with or undermined the timeline set out in the slate of movie. When they left Chris to perish, his rescue, and what that would mean for him, had to happen in a big DCU event, and that meant the TV series prologue to the films. Although Gunn is still tight-lipped on whether Peacemaker will make an appearance in Man of Tomorrow or Supergirl, he has dropped a hint that Chris Smith’s next outing in the cinematic universe is a safe bet.
Jennifer Holland’s characterization of the Peacemaker Season 2 finale as “heartbreaking in retrospect” is a wonderful encapsulation of the narrative needs the series is forced to cater to with the wider franchise restructuring. The heartbreak is not just the breach of physical separation between Peacemaker and Harcourt but that their emotional walls are torn down only for the new connection to be severed by perceived betrayal. While Peacemaker Season 3 is on hold, the characters’ narratives—now driven by Harcourt’s grief and resolve—are officially at the center of the upcoming cinematic universe.
Robert De Niro gives a brilliant dual performance in "Alto Nights", proving once again why he is a timeless legend in American cinema.
The year 2025 has turned out to be transformative for actors playing two roles — a craft that requires not only technical skill but the creative nimbleness to make each character distinct, memorable, and meaningful. Very few actors have ever pulled such a stunt with the confidence of Robert De Niro in “Alto Knights”, Robert Pattinson in Bong Joon Ho’s mind-bending “Mickey 17” or Michael B. Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s slick “Sinners.” Critics have praised all three performances, deeming them some of the greatest dual performances seen on screen in recent times.
Robert De Niro’s place in American cinema is defined by his tendency to dwell so far into a character that the actor becomes indistinguishable from the role. In Alto Knights, the Barry Levinson film, De Niro brings this artistry to yet another dimension by playing not one but two legendary mob bosses: Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. This is not only a parade of makeup, costume, and accent changes, but an examination in fine shades of difference—each character is distinguished not just by voice and mannerism, but by the moral and social landscapes they occupy.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, The narrative tracks Costello and Genovese, old friends–turned enemies, as their aspirations collide in the changing landscape of 1950s New York. De Niro’s Costello is cool and calculating, monkishly business— a sharp suit, walnut-lined lobbies, and the weight of years spent scrabbling between politics and criminality. Genovese, on the other hand, is temperamental and paranoid, consumed with returning to his former position of power and testing the limits of violence and vice.
Critics note that Levinson’s direction is not a reinvention of the mob genre, and can be derivative at times, but it is De Niro’s talent to bring to life two very different characters that is what really gives the film its backbone. Even when the story stalls in exposition or tiresomely repeats mob lore, De Niro’s subtle work anchors “Alto Knights” as a showcase for his undiminished artistry.
That’s not the only exciting thing about Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17, which will also be a showcase for Robert Pattinson’s most extreme screen skills yet. USAToday mentioned, Adapted from the book by Edward Ashton, the movie depicts a future in which disposable laborers (dubbed “Mickeys”) are cloned and resurrected multiple times to provide humanity’s needs. Pattinson, who must portray a series of character variants of Mickey as the story progresses, embraces the challenge.
The American critics said Pattinson’s performance was “gonzo, gleefully deranged”, and that the fact each of his clones gives him a slight trace of individuality—somewhat hopeful, somewhat world-weary, makes the film both humorous and touching. Bong Joon Ho – who fuses biting social commentary with genre thrills – utilizes Pattinson’s liable performance to pose questions of identity, labor and what it means to have a soul.The actor’s comic abilities, physical energy, and readiness to infuse his character with a smidgeon of existential dread led to some of the most memorable and praised performances from “Good Time” and “The Lighthouse,” but “Mickey 17” is where his bravura range really converges.
As NYpost, Michael B. Jordan doubles up in the drama “Sinners”—as Smoke and Stack, brothers divided by everything imaginable, caps a year that has seen him reach for the stars in terms of challenge and scope. Ryan Coogler’s script provides Jordan with ample material, telling a gothic Southern vampire story with a slick spin, but it is Jordan who elevates the movie.
Variety has praised Jordan’s unique talent to both physically and emotionally embody each twin. Smoke is all brooding menace, while Stack exudes a wounded charm—a divide not just of wardrobe and posture, but of energy, trauma, and hope. The skill involved in their interactions — fighting, arguing, even fleeting tenderness — pulls you into what seems like a genuine, lived experience between them. Jordan’s decisions do not trail off into the cliched, if anything they are careful in how both twins are made unique but symbiotic, amplifying the tragic sweep of the film and, occasionally, bringing it surprising grace.
What explains the outpouring of affection for these actors, aside from the basic fact that they’re all very big stars:
By 2025, the challenge of playing two roles has evolved from a cinematic feature to a crucible for the best actors in the world, a place where technical virtuosity can be measured against emotional profundity.
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The triumphs of plugins such as “Alto Knights,” “Mickey 17,” and “Sinners” are already shaping a new generation of American filmmakers. The best sales agents, casting directors and studios now feel emboldened to take a chance on multi-role scripts, confident that modern visual effects and acting skill can create truly memorable storytelling. For fans and critics alike, these performances are a reminder of cinema’s ability to reinvent itself – even in genres that might feel otherwise spent.
This year has truly been the blast of the double act, but playing two parts in a film is more than just a cinematic trick — it’s a challenge that can say a lot about an actor’s courage and range. From Robert De Niro’s layered mob legends in Alto Knights to Robert Pattinson’s fearless experimentation in Mickey 17 and Michael B. Jordan’s emotional duality in Sinners, these performances are setting a new gold standard for what it means to be versatile in today’s cinema. As storytelling changes, such double performances serve as reminders that great acting is still at the core of unforgettable filmmaking.
