The revelation of Daniel Craig’s new Knives Out 3 look couldn’t be more ironic after a rival murder mystery series recently wrapped up its trilogy with a box office success. Director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out brought Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery formula into the twenty-first century in 2019. The playful, subversive crime comedy messes with the whodunit plot formula, with Daniel Craig’s campy Benoit Blanc acting as Johnson’s homage to Christie’s iconic detective Hercule Poirot. 2022’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery saw Blanc solve another case, while the upcoming Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery promises more thrills.

However, Johnson’s Benoit Blanc mysteries aren’t the only franchise to reignite interest in the genre that Agatha Christie famously dominated. Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot movies offered a more traditional take on the murder mystery sub-genre, adapting classic Christie novels like Murder On The Orient Express, Death On The Nile, and Hallowe’en Party. The first two of these stories had already been brought to the big screen decades earlier, but this didn’t deter Branagh from assembling an impressively starry cast to revisit the classic Poirot mysteries. Surprisingly, both of these dueling franchises managed to fare well with critics and audiences.

Knives Out 3’s Benoit Blanc Looks Like Kenneth Branagh (But Not Poirot)

Branagh Transformed Himself To Play Agatha Christie’s Detective

Now, after 2023’s Hallowe’en Party adaptation A Haunting In Venice ended Branagh’s Poirot trilogy, the first glimpse of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery offers a sly nod to the director/actor’s murder mystery movies. Johnson took to X (formerly Twitter) to show viewers an early tease Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’s Benoit Blanc and, with shaggy blonde hair and stubble, Craig’s character looks suspiciously familiar. Craig’s Benoit Blanc now looks like Kenneth Branagh did in his two Harry Potter movies, Much Ado About Nothing, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and numerous other early roles.

Ironically, Craig’s Blanc looks nothing like Branagh’s version of Poirot since the actor trimmed his hair and shaved his stubble to match Christie’s character description. Thanks to The Thursday Murder Club’s upcoming adaptation, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery faces further competition from another starry murder mystery franchise, even though Branagh’s Poirot movies have come to an end. Fortunately, Johnson’s cheeky new look for Craig’s famous detective implies that the director isn’t worried about the Knives Out franchise coexisting alongside a rival mystery series. After all, Blanc’s new look playfully acknowledges Branagh and, by extension, his Poirot movies.

How The Knives Out and Poirot Movies Succeeded Simultaneously

The Starry Murder Mystery Franchises Were Sufficiently Different

Although Rian Johnson’s Benoit Blanc movies have their problems, the series has mostly enjoyed critical acclaim. Similarly, Branagh’s Poirot movies were box office hits despite competition from the Knives Out movies. Their simultaneous success can be attributed to two very different styles. Branagh leaned into the source material’s period trappings, adapting iconic titles from Christie’s back catalog. In contrast, the Knives Out movies are pointedly contemporary in their settings, storylines, characters, and style. Viewers can be sure that Knives Out 3 will be as timely and topical as its predecessors, whereas Branagh’s Poirot movies were more nostalgic and traditional.