The trailer for Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man: A Knives Out Mystery is purposefully light on concrete details, but I’m pretty sure I know which character is the murder victim in the latest Benoit Blanc film. Played by Daniel Craig in each of the Knives Out movies, Benoit Blanc has so far proven to be an impeccable detective. However, his abilities are seemingly being challenged by a mystery that might take on supernatural elements.

It’s a fitting new direction for the series, especially after the brightly colored satire of Glᴀss Onion. The trailer for Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man: A Knives Out Mystery revealed at Tudum 2025 didn’t give much away besides the general visual tone and confirmations on the cast, but the absence of one specific character raises serious questions about their fate. Although the trailer doesn’t confirm the murder victim, the gothic tone of the film and some key sH๏τs in the trailer lead me to believe that the missing character is the victim at the center of the film’s narrative.

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The Trailer For Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man Suggests A Lot Of The Cast Are Around For Most Of The Movie

The trailer for Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man: A Knives Out Mystery hints that it’s Cailee Spaeny’s Simone Vivane who becomes the primary murder victim, as many of the other possible casualties of the film appear far more prominently in the trailer. At various points in the newly released trailer for Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man, Daniel Craig’s Benoit can be seen alongside other confirmed members of the cast. Others are shown around the scene of the crime, including Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Daryl McCormack.

In fact, the trailer only has two confirmed stars of the film not clearly appear — Thomas Haden Church and Cailee Spaeny — hinting one of them is the murder victim. This also suggests that Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man will be more structurally similar to the first Knives Out instead of the sequel, Glᴀss Onion. The former introduced a huge cast of notable stars and quickly killed off one, leaving most of the rest of the cast as possible killers (or other victims), whereas the sequel was a much slower burn towards the revelation of the murder.

Of the confirmed characters, there are some (like Mila Kunis’ police detective Geraldine Scott) who seem likely to be ᴀssisting Benoit instead of being investigated. By contrast, Andrew Scott can be seen with a knife, suggesting he’ll be a chief suspect in whatever murder propels the plot forward. The trailer for Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man suggests a more free-roaming mystery, with characters following Benoit and debating the true nature of the killing. One of the only characters not seen is Spaeny’s Simone Vivane, which doesn’t bode well for the character.

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Cailee’s Absence In The Trailer Is Noticable

The trailer is a great mood setter, but it does raise some questions about the role that Thomas Hayden Church’s Samson Holt or Cailee Spaeny’s Simone Vivane play in the film. Simone doesn’t even formally appear in the trailer, although two sH๏τs could be her — there’s a cellist seen from behind, as well as a mysterious woman bathed in red light. This, coupled with the suggestions that some of the other characters believe the death to have been something of a miracle, suggests that the victim could be the woman seen in the trailer.

Given her body shape and lack of appearances elsewhere in the trailer, it’s easy to ᴀssume those sH๏τs are of Cailee Spaeny’s Simone. If that’s the case, then Simone’s youth and apparent artistic talent would make her death even more tragic. Considering the gothic tone of the trailer, that would make a certain amount of sense and would help justify the darker visual elements. While the trailer doesn’t give us many concrete clues, I’m pretty sure we can glean from the tone of the footage and Simone’s lack of appearances in the trailer means she isn’t long for this world.

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Simone’s Death Would Be A Reversal Of The First Knives Out

Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man was already shaping up to be a darker contrast to the brighter previous films, but a young life full of potential being snuffed out — at a church and potentially by a priest, no less — gives the film some clear darkness. Simone being the victim of Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man‘s murder mystery would also be a fitting subversion of the first Knives Out. In that movie, it was a young woman with whom Benoit worked primarily alongside, with much of the plot focused on their dynamic as Marta tried to stay one step ahead of Benoit.

In Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man, the young woman seems to already be ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. Instead, it seems that Benoit’s primary partner in the investigation will be Geraldine Scott, who seems to be a more active law enforcement officer than previous cops in the series. While there’s a possibility that Cailee Spaeny’s character simply isn’t seen in the trailer and that Holt (or someone else) is actually the victim, the mysterious circumstances surrounding Simone’s death would make perfect sense for the apparent style and tone of Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man: A Knives Out Mystery.