What’s the next Conjuring movie after The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It? The film, which arrived in June 2021, was the third installment of the franchise’s main series, and a film that fans had been anticipating for quite some time. With a good bit of work going into its spinoffs, Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) hadn’t had their own dedicated movie since 2016’s The Conjuring 2. A cameo from Annabelle led to the demon-possessed doll getting its own spinoff series, with The Conjuring 2’s villain getting similar treatment through The Nun in 2018. With The Curse of La Llorona, there are eight Conjuring movies so far.
Annabelle: Creation took the Conjurverse over the $1 billion mark at the global box office, and current numbers show that interest in these films remains. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It proved to be a hit too. There had been little in the way of Conjuring news since the release of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and only a few long-gestating Conjuring spinoff projects left in development. As a proven hit for Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema, it’s clear that the studios are far from done with the Conjurverse, as The Conjuring 4 is confirmed and on the way. That’s not the only upcoming Conjuring movie either.
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The Nun 2 – Releasing September 8, 2023
The Nun didn’t match the great reviews of the new Conjuring movie or the new Annabelle movie, but it did outperform all other movies in the franchise. Akela Cooper serves as screenwriter and Bonnie Aarons returns as Valak alongside Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene. The first film took the franchise back further than ever before by heading to 1952 Romania, and The Nun 2 will take place only a few years later. In the movie, it’s Sister Irene who is tracking down Valak after a string of murders points to the entity creating terror.
In addition to the return of Aarons and Farmiga, The Nun 2 also features three new actors for the next Conjurverse movie. Anna Popplewell, who fans will know from her role as Susan in The Chronicles of Narnia movies as a teenager and her role as Lola in Reign as an adult, is playing a widowed mother. Katelyn Rose Downey (Princess) plays her daughter. Storm Reid (The Last Of Us) also has a role in the movie, though details about her character have not been revealed other than that she is also playing a nun.
The Conjuring: Last Rites – Confirmed
The Warrens could come back for Annabelle 4 or The Nun 2, but the most obvious option for their return was always The Conjuring 4. The full title of the upcoming Conjuring movie is now The Conjuring: Last Rites. The movie was confirmed in October 2022 and features a script by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. It could “potentially wrap up” the story of the Warrens according to James Wan (via Collider). So far, there’s no scheduled release date for the movie. However, since the next Conjurverse movie, The Nun 2, will come out September 8, 2023, it’s likely that The Conjuring 4 will release sometime in 2024 or 2025.
No specifics are known about the story details for the new Conjuring movie other than it is expected to follow another supernatural case for the Warrens. The only cast members confirmed to appear are Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson. It’s not clear if anyone else from the other Conjurverse movies’ casts will join them. While it might be the last story for the Warrens, that doesn’t mean there won’t be other upcoming Conjuring movies as the franchise could feature a number of other characters and supernatural entities introduced in their movies.
Since each new Conjuring movie is based on real-life high-profile cases that the Warrens have investigated, speculation on The Conjuring 4‘s story has run rampant. That being said, the most likely cases that The Conjuring 4 could cover would be the Smurl haunting or the Snedeker house. The Snedeker house was investigated in 1986, and was a funeral home that was said to be crawling with demons, resulting in a family being haunted. The Smurl haunting was a similar case, with Jack and Janet Smurl reporting that there was a demon living in their house until 1989. Either way, The Conjuring 4 is sure to follow all things that go bump in the night.
The Conjuring TV Show – Confirmed
A television series set within The Conjuring universe is also in development in addition to the next Conjuring movie. Not a lot of details have been revealed about the project yet, but it is an original series for the streamer Max (formerly HBO Max). James Wan and Peter Safran are both in talks to produce the series, but it’s not clear how involved either of them would be in the details of the show.
The only story detail about the Conjuring streaming series is that it will “continue the story established in the feature films.” With a film franchise that features demonic entities appearing as nuns, evil dolls, and a husband and wife team investigating hauntings, it’s not clear which feature films will be directly related to the series. There’s been no talk of writers or cast yet either, however, neither of those aspects will likely be resolved until after the Writer’s Guild strike has concluded. As a result, it’s likely the series won’t premiere until at least 2025.
A New Annabelle?
There’s no official word on whether a new Annabelle movie is in development, so Annabelle Comes Home could very well be the last movie in the series. However, Peter Safran has appeared open to the prospect of the movie happening, and there have indeed been rumors of a fourth film in the Conjurverse’s most successful spin-off series. If so, it would either have to take place before Annabelle Comes Home, or it would need to find another way for the doll to escape the Warrens’ occult museum and wreak havoc once again.
The Canceled Devil Made Me Do It Spinoff
The Conjuring 3 was originally intended to continue the trend set by the first two movies by launching a new spinoff through a now-deleted demon character. The Conjuring did it with Annabelle, and The Conjuring 2 did it with The Nun, so a plan was in place for The Devil Made Me Do It to make that work with a demon of its own. The writers conceived a demon (played by Davis Osborne) for the new Conjuring movie that they believed would be perfect for a standalone story in the Conjurverse. Unlike Eugenia Bondurant’s Occultist, this character actually was inspired by the real-life “Devil Made Me Do It” case. He was supposedly one of the evil spirits heard on the David Glatzel exorcism tape.
If included, the demon would have filled a co-antagonist role alongside Occultist, but this idea was ultimately scrapped. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It director Michael Chaves said that rather than use both and risk the story being too complex, they decided to commit to one human villain. Chaves’ comments reveal that scenes with Davis Osborne’s demon were shot but had to be cut, with Osborne getting a bit role as a prison infirmary patient in its place. However, the character could theoretically appear in a future Conjurverse movie or in the upcoming Conjuring series.
The Canceled Crooked Man Movie
The Nun wasn’t the only project spawned from the Warrens’ trip to London and the battle with Valak in The Conjuring 2. There was also The Crooked Man, which is based on the creature of the same name that came to life from a music box during the movie. James Wan and Conjurverse producer Peter Safran were both said to be involved in making The Crooked Man, which Wan likened to a “dark fairytale” story, however, Wan confirmed in 2022 that The Crooked Man had been canceled.
At one point The Crooked Man was an incredibly anticipated new Conjuring movie. In 2017, it was said to still be in the early stages. According to Safran, The Nun took priority over The Crooked Man, but the project ended up being scrapped altogether. It’s unclear why The Crooked Man was never made, but Wan did hint that the decision was outside his control. Chances are studios axed the movie, with early responses being they didn’t want to move forward with production without a good story.
Whatever happens with the next Conjuring movie, it seems unlikely that series creator James Wan will return to the director’s chair. In 2016, he publicly stated that he would not be directing another Conjuring movie due to scheduling conflicts. In addition to his creative role on the Conjuring and Saw horror franchises, Wan is also directing the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and seems more interested in stand-alone horror movies like Malignant. Wan’s busy slate could also help to explain why there has been little public development on upcoming Conjurverse movies. But like a good horror villain, it is likely The Conjuring will keep coming back again and again.