Knives Out 3 Adds A Marvel Star, And History Hints That He's The Murderer

Breaking news: The greatest threat to this industry isn't the death of movie theaters, the rise of artificial intelligence, or Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's reign of terror. It is, in fact, writer/director Rian Johnson's ceaseless efforts to cast the entirety of Hollywood in his "Knives Out" movies.

Since today's a day that ends in "Y," that quest continues unabated yet again. After only just hearing word that the third film in this murder-mystery series, titled "Wake Up Dead Man," has added actors (deep breath, folks) Josh O'Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, and Glenn Close to its roster of stars (along with the main detective himself, of course, Daniel Craig), we've now received word that yet another high-profile name is close to signing on the dotted line. None other than Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran, current "Mayor of Kingston" lead, and former mastermind behind the Renner App (which sadly flew too close to the sun and never took off the way it should've) Jeremy Renner is set to join the next Benoit Blanc mystery, according to Deadline.

As with the prior casting reports, there are no details currently available as to the actual plot of the film (although the U2-inspired title likely provides some hints) or what character Renner is playing. That means it's anyone's guess whether he'll end up being a murder suspect, the murderer himself, or an ally of Benoit Blanc's. It'll likely be some time before we start peeling back the layers of misdirection behind this next story, though Deadline at least reports that filming is set to commence next month with an eye towards a 2025 release.

And now to put on our detective hats and recklessly speculate carefully hypothesize about whether we might actually know more about Jeremy Renner's role in "Wake Up Dead Man" than we think. Rian Johnson has taken awfully roundabout approaches to the central mysteries in "Knives Out" and "Glass Onion," both times using our assumptions about the most "obvious" guilty party in the ensemble cast and weaponizing that against us to reveal the ultimate killer. But there's also another common thread between both movies that, now that we've pointed it out, will almost certainly end up not coming true for the threequel. With characters played by Chris Evans and Edward Norton turning out to be the big bads of their respective entries, that means Johnson has just so happened to cast former Marvel stars as the murderer.

With Hawkeye himself now on board, will lightning strike thrice? (We suppose this theory could also apply to "Guardians of the Galaxy" breakout star — you may have heard of her before — Glenn Close, as well. To be clear, that would also rock.)

While it's far too early to tell, at least we know this casting backs up another of our pet theories. As /Film's BJ Colangelo recently laid out quite succinctly, every addition to this film boasts varying degrees of musical talent. As we all know, when he isn't doing home renovation shows or leading pop-culture sensations like "Tag," Renner has been dropping sick tracks as part of his singer/songwriter side gig — including one as recently as four months ago!

Oh, and there's also the matter of "Glass Onion" name-dropping Renner with a memorable line about his own brand of hot sauce product. Could he be playing himself??? Interesting, indeed.