Info in Movie News | Audiences are not ready to say goodbye to The Conjuring: Last Rites’ haunted halls and restless spirits, because the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren is far from over. The couple who hunt ghosts are going to be back not only with a new prequel movie but also an HBO series that will broaden the frightening Conjuring Universe.
According to Variety, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are working on a Conjuring prequel movie, and Rodrigue Huart, the director, is rumored to be in charge of the project. With his award-winning short Transylvanie (which got the jury prize at SXWS 2024), Huart is probably going to step in as a director for the first time with this production. The two writers Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg will be back to write the script. They are the writers of The Nun II (2023) and The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025).
The next chapter in the series will, according to the scoop, not only retrace the steps of Ed and Lorraine Warren during their first days but also show how the paranormal investigators made their first contact with the supernatural world of horror. Since the storyline is set in the past, it is anticipated that different actors will portray the characters as Patrick Wilson and Vera Farminga might not feature in the movie. Even though it would be a great change if they were not there, it also gives an opportunity for a brand new interpretation of the couple's relationship and their origin story.
The Conjuring: Last Rites was promoted as the “final chapter” of the main series, but the studio's point of view was changed by its box office success very quickly. The movie grossed an impressive $487 million worldwide, the highest total in the franchise’s history. It is pretty evident from such figures that Warner Bros. and New Line are not willing to turn the last page of their most successful horror franchise. The final chapter has now been reopened to explore the themes of terror and religion more profoundly.
A new chapter is being written with the prequel movie only, The Conjuring universe is coming to television as well. HBO is developing a television series that will continue the mythology of the feature movies. The series will be guided by showrunner Nancy Won, a writer and producer who worked on Lovecraft Country and The Haunting of Hill House, and will also serve as writer, executive producer, and showrunner. Peter Safran, the producer who has been a collaborator on every Conjuring project and has been with the team for a long time, will also be back to oversee the production. Although the story of the show is a secret, the series is rumored to follow the Warrens’ legacy and explore the dark archives of their case files.
The move of the franchise to serialized storytelling is a reasonable one. Horror series such as The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher have demonstrated that long-form horror can be just as gripping to the audience as a horror movie of standard length. Given HBO's reputation for atmospheric and top-quality productions, this new series has the potential to not only change the Conjuring Universe way of giving more character depth and slow-burn terror but also to go beyond the usual jump scares. The building of dread that stays with you between episodes is what it is really about.
The Conjuring Universe, which consists of nine movies including spin-offs like Annabelle and The Nun, has made a total of $2.7 billion worldwide, thus becoming the most successful horror franchise of all time. The fact that most of these movies are made on fairly low budgets, hence allowing for huge profit margins, is what makes the achievement even more phenomenal. The universe which was created by James Wan and produced by Peter Safran, has been consistent in finding ways to combine the intimate character-driven storytelling with the large-scale supernatural horror.
While Director Rodrigue Huart might be new to feature movies, his short projects, notably Trigger and Real, demonstrate his ability to create tension, atmosphere and emotional depth, which are the main ingredients of a successful Conjuring tale. Paramount is also producing his direction of Suffer Little Children, a remake of the 1976 Spanish horror classic Who Can Kill a Child?. Given that his inventive way is based on the depiction of visual fear and the psychological aspect of the characters, Huart may have the capacity to inject not only a novel but also an extremely disturbing kind of unrelenting psychological fear into the universe of Conjuring.
After the prequel and the HBO series, Warner Bros. seems to be taking The Conjuring in a different direction creatively. They are not only planning to return to the haunted houses we know but also expanding the universe’s lore, revealing the Warrens’ secret past, and maybe even introducing a new generation of paranormal investigators.
That is the way the plot unfolds for the devoted followers - it is not the end, but a new phase. The Conjuring Universe is not only still there, but it is also getting stronger and more powerful, hence, capable of scaring a whole new generation of fans while paying tribute to the tradition that made it one of the most legendary horror sagas ever.
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