The Conjuring 4 is in the works behind the scenes at Warner Bros. Discovery's New Line Cinema. This revelation follows the company’s recent hiring of a past franchise contributor to help build up the new project.
The Conjuring franchise consists of eight projects in total, with three mainline films and five spinoffs, all based around the real-life adventures of paranormal investigators and authors Ed and Lorraine Warren. The main horror films present a dramatization of the Warrens as they attempt to assist victims of paranormal activity, with the other projects based around interesting cases they have encountered, such as the iconic doll Annabelle. The franchise's latest installment, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, managed to power through pandemic issues for a respectable gross, despite many fans believing The Conjuring series had run its course before then.
Now, it seems the directive minds at New Line Cinema are looking to extend the franchise even further forward with another mainline addition to the franchise in The Conjuring 4. The Hollywood Reporter confirms that a fourth mainline film is in the early stages of development, with New Line bringing back previous franchise contributor David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who worked on the last two mainline films in The Conjuring franchise. McGoldrick, who also penned a sequel to the DCEU project The Flash, is set to write the upcoming horror film.
Also returning for the project are producers James Wan and Peter Safran, who have worked on every entry in the Conjuring franchise, including the upcoming The Nun sequel, which began filming in mid-October 2022. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are also expected to reprise their roles as the Warrens, but there is no word on an agreement between New Line and the stars just yet. This is not particularly worrying, as the script hasn’t been written yet, leaving plenty of time to hash out the casting.
Many dedicated fans of the horror genre will be excited at the prospect of another mainline addition to the Conjuring universe, which has added a plethora of terrifying and iconic villains to the collective consciousness. Casual fans will also be excited at the news, as the film series is easily one of the most recognizable and profitable horror franchises in the world, with wide appeal and a record of commercial success. The fourth installment in the series is sure to be another success for New Line, as the franchise so far has brought in $2.1 billion, despite only taking a combined $178 million to make.
There are those with reservations about the upcoming project, as quite a few fans still think that Annabelle Comes Home was a fitting end for the franchise and that anything more might not be the best creative decision from the franchise caretakers. Whether or not the team and cast behind The Conjuring 4 will be able to win over the skeptics and inject more fan interest into the franchise going forward will be revealed in due course.
The Conjuring 4 is in development at New Line Cinema.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter