No Knives Out for J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson as They Reunite With a Star Wars Joke

It looks like the persistent fan misconception that there’s a rift between Star Wars directors J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson will finally be put to bed. The two reunited on stage for a Q&A about Johnson’s Knives Out threequel, Wake Up Dead Man, this week, and the man behind The Last Jedi immediately had a Star Wars gag ready for the crowd.

“Let’s talk about the franchise trilogy everyone wants to hear our thoughts about,” he said, taking a beat before adding, “Let’s talk about Knives Out.”

The joke drew laughs from Abrams and the crowd, who’d just been treated to a screening of Wake Up Dead Man. Abrams called the film “an incredible accomplishment” that was “beyond” being called the best Knives Out movie.

He also revealed that Johnson had spoken to him during the writing process because he wasn’t sure whether expanding Knives Out’s tone for the third movie would work. Acknowledging that the film’s central character doesn’t show up for quite a while, Johnson admitted he was “very worried,” but that perhaps this fear meant it was worth doing.

Also in attendance was the star of Wake Up Dead Man, Daniel Craig, and Johnson recalled a behind-the-scenes Star Wars moment when he was more eagle-eyed than most about Craig’s acting prowess, even back then.

“When I was writing Episode VIII, we were watching dailies, because [J.J. was] shooting VII,” Johnson told the audience. “One day… it was a scene with Daisy [Ridley] where she does the Force mind control on a Stormtrooper and gets him to unlock her things. The daily came up, the Stormtrooper came up, the Stormtrooper didn’t say anything—just walked across the room to her.”

Johnson then replicated his physical reaction to the random Stormtrooper, saying that he was moved to ask who the actor was. “Pablo [Hidalgo] at Lucasfilm was like, ‘I think it’s just a stunt dude in a Stormtrooper thing,’ and I go, ‘No—that’s a real actor, just from the way they walked across the stage.’”

Even though his thoughts were dismissed at the time with a “no, dude,” Johnson noted that Hidalgo returned to him later and confirmed he was right: “Yeah, that’s Daniel Craig.”

In Wake Up Dead Man, detective Benoit Blanc returns to investigate the mystery of a murdered priest when one of his colleagues becomes a suspect. The film is set to explore themes of faith and reason tied to a crime framed as potentially miraculous.

Wake Up Dead Man will release in theaters on November 26. It will stream globally on Netflix beginning December 12.