Seeing as The Conjuring 2 is already a critical success (like its predecessor) and has currently grossed $96 million worldwide less than a week after it open in the U.S. (against a $40 million budget), it’s fair to assume that Warner Bros. Pictures has no intention of letting the horror franchise lie dormant anytime soon. Case in point, Annabelle 2 is scheduled to hit theaters in 2017, there’s now talk of The Conjuring 3 – and, it turns out, a spinoff of The Conjuring 2 is moving forward now, too.
THR is reporting that WB is moving forward with a Conjuring 2 spinoff titled The Nun, with Conjuring 2 co-screenwriter David Leslie Johnson (who’s also working with Wan on the Aquaman movie) attached to pen the script. Wan and Conjuring series producer Peter Safran are already lined up to produce The Nun – which, as its title suggests, will revolve around the demonic nun character that plays a key role in the storyline for The Conjuring 2. (And on an interesting sidenote: the demonic nun’s look wasn’t finalized until during reshoots that took place a few months before the Conjuring sequel was released in theaters.)
Where the Annabelle spinoff explored the untold backstory for the haunted doll of the same name that was featured primarily in the prologue to The Conjuring (though it did re-appear later in the film), The Conjuring 2 arguably doesn’t hint at the demonic nun character in the movie having any sort of elaborate history that goes that far beyond what is revealed about the monster by the end of the sequel. On the other hand, without getting too spoiler-y for those reading this who haven’t seen the movie yet, The Conjuring 2 doesn’t examine what trouble-making the demon got up to prior to the events depicted in the film (including its own prologue), either.