While the Marvel Cinematic Universe receives a lot of praise for constructing tightly woven multi-film plot arcs that contribute to a wider story, Warner Bros. have quietly been building their own version in the Conjuring Universe, which currently consists of The Conjuring (2013), Annabelle (2014), The Conjuring 2 (2016), Annabelle: Creation (2017) and, coming on September 7th, The Nun.
The films have received middling-to-positive critical notices, but they’ve really excelled financially – for example, Annabelle made back 40 times its $6.5 million budget. Even better for New Line and Warner Bros., the combined box office take for the universe is an impressive $1.2 billion. All this makes it unsurprising that they’re scheduling a couple more films to bolster those numbers even further, and have confirmed today that a future entry is due for release on July 3rd, 2019.
We don’t have any idea what that movie will be but, given that we’ve previously heard that The Conjuring 3 and spinoff The Crooked Man are in the works, smart money says it’s one of them. Personally, I’m hoping it’s the latter. The Crooked Man was one of the best things about The Conjuring 2, and this project is being penned by Mike Van Waes based on a story by Conjuring mastermind James Wan. I wouldn’t say no to The Conjuring 3 mind you, but when given a choice between familiarity and striking out for something new, I’ll always plump for the new.
In the meantime, The Nun is sounding pretty positive. Like The Crooked Man, it’s based on a character from The Conjuring 2 and tells the story of a Catholic priest investigating the mysterious and gruesome suicide of a nun. Sounds Exorcist-tastic! There’s also that creepy new image which it debuted just the other day.
We’ll have more on the Conjuring Universe (the Conjureverse?), including some firmer details on what we have to look forward to next year pretty soon, so be sure to stay tuned!
