The Wake Up Dead Man cast has become the talk of the 2025 movie season, packing Rian Johnson’s snow-choked murder mystery with more star power than any Knives Out film before it. Daniel Craig once again steps into the shoes of Benoit Blanc, but this time he faces his most unpredictable group of suspects yet: a blizzard-trapped congregation hiding lies, greed, and old wounds inside a crumbling upstate New York church.
Audiences across the country have turned the Netflix drop into a nationwide watch party. From the moment the opening credits roll, the talent on screen grabs attention and never lets go.
Daniel Craig – Benoit Blanc Craig returns sharper and more haunted than ever. Blanc trades tropical islands and tech mansions for a frozen parish where everyone claims divine protection. Craig leans into the detective’s flamboyance while letting flickers of real doubt show for the first time. His slow-burn realization that this case might break him gives the entire movie its heartbeat.
Josh O’Connor – Father Jud Duplenticy O’Connor plays the young priest sent to clean up the parish mess. A former heavyweight boxer who found God after too many knockouts, Jud still carries violence in his hands and guilt in his eyes. O’Connor moves between gentle compassion and barely-contained rage with breathtaking control. His scenes opposite Craig crackle with mutual respect and unspoken competition.
Josh Brolin – Monsignor Jefferson Wicks Brolin storms through the film as the magnetic, terrifying leader of the church. Wicks built into a personal empire. He preaches love while crushing dissent, quotes scripture while twisting arms. Brolin finds the scared little boy underneath the roaring tyrant, and the moment the mask slips ranks among the year’s most chilling reveals.
Glenn Close – Martha Delacroix Close delivers a masterclass in stillness as the church’s iron-willed gatekeeper. Martha has served three monsignors, buried more secrets than gravestones, and still believes the institution can be saved. Close lets decades of loyalty, resentment, and quiet heartbreak play across her face without ever raising her voice.
Mila Kunis – Chief Geraldine Scott Kunis trades Hollywood glamour for a parka and a badge as the local police chief who knows every dirt road and every family skeleton. Geraldine resents Blanc’s big-city swagger, but she needs his brain. Kunis fires off one-liners like bullets and proves she can carry dramatic weight with the best of them.
Jeremy Renner – Dr. Nat Sharp Renner disappears into the town’s only doctor, a man whose marriage, reputation, and liver have all seen better days. Nat treats the poor for free and the church leaders for favors. Renner plays him as a walking wound—angry, funny, and heartbreaking all at once.
Kerry Washington – Vera Draven Washington brings razor-sharp intelligence to Vera, the Harvard-educated lawyer who came home to care for her dying father and never left. Vera defends the church in court by day and questions her own faith by night. Washington turns every courtroom cross-examination into high-stakes theater.
Andrew Scott – Lee Ross Scott unleashes pure chaos as a once-beloved sci-fi writer now reduced to rage-posting from his mother’s basement. Lee blames the church, the town, and especially Monsignor Wicks for stealing his best years. Scott makes him hilarious, pathetic, and legitimately frightening—sometimes in the same breath.
Cailee Spaeny – Simone Vivane Spaeny breaks hearts as the former Juilliard cellist whose career ended overnight because of chronic pain. Simone clings to the church as her last source of meaning, even as evidence mounts that it might destroy her. Spaeny’s fragile intensity turns quiet scenes into emotional dynamite.
Daryl McCormack – Cy Draven McCormack plays Vera’s ambitious adoptive son who livestreams conservative talking points to millions while secretly terrified he’s a fraud. Cy circles the scandal like a shark, looking for the angle that will launch him to Congress. McCormack makes his hunger feel both repulsive and tragically relatable.
Thomas Haden Church – Samson Holt Church brings gravel-voiced melancholy to the church groundskeeper who has tended the same graves for forty years. Samson loves Martha from a distance that feels like miles. Church turns a seemingly minor role into one of the film’s most soulful presences.
Supporting players who refuse to fade into the background Jeffrey Wright cameos as the weary bishop who sends Jud into the lion’s den. Annie Hamilton devastates in just three scenes as Grace Wicks, the mother the monsignor publicly disowned. Bridget Everett rips your heart out in a single phone call. James Faulkner looms as the ancient Reverend Prentice Wicks, whose shadow still darkens every hallway. Noah Segan pours drinks and drops truth bombs behind the bar, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt delivers his now-traditional voice-only baseball play-by-play.
Johnson shot the movie in London studios and real upstate locations, locking the actors together for weeks of rehearsal that clearly paid off. The blizzard feels real because the cast lived in it. The church feels lived-in because these performers treat it like a war zone of the soul.
American viewers have connected hard with the story’s questions about organized religion, small-town power games, and what people do when they feel God has stopped listening. From coast to coast, group chats light up with new theories every night.
The Wake Up Dead Man cast doesn’t just serve the mystery—they become it. Every actor digs deep, finds truth in their character’s worst impulses, and somehow still makes you root for them. That rare alchemy has turned a streaming sequel into the kind of movie people will quote for years.
Who gave your favorite performance? Which suspect are you betting on right now? Drop your picks in the comments—we’re reading every single one.