Warner Bros.' upcoming supernatural goth horror film The Nun 2 has added Anna Popplewell and Katelyn Rose Downey to its cast. The film, the latest installment in the massively successful The Conjuring franchise, has already announced prior castings for role reprisals from the first film.
The Nun is set in Warner Bros' The Conjuring universe, a franchise based on the real-life experiences of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators and writers whose adventures have spawned 8 successful horror dramatizations for New Line Cinema, with more on the way. Serving as a spin-off to the mainline Conjuring films, The Nun tells the story of the demonic entity Valak, who seeks to wreak havoc on the world via an avatar, and two members of the Roman Catholic church who must face this evil in their search for answers. The film was well received by many and fleshed out one of the most terrifying villains in the Conjuring universe.
Deadline confirmed that New Line Cinema had added The Chronicles of Narnia star Popplewell and Clean Sweep's Katelyn Rose Downey to the cast of The Nun 2, which started filming in October of 2022. While details on the plot are still behind wraps, it was also revealed that Popplewell would play Kate, a mother and a teacher at a catholic school in France, with Downey likely cast in the role of the older actress’ young daughter. The announcements come not long after it was confirmed that Taissa Farmiga would reprise her role as Sister Irene from the first film, along with co-producers James Wan and Peter Safran returning from the first film with director Micheal Chaves (who previously worked on the Conjuring franchise films The Curse of La Llorona and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) taking over from The Nun director Corin Hardy.
The upcoming sequel was penned by notable contemporary horror scribe Alexa Cooper. The scribe, who recently wrote for the upcoming Blumhouse horror film M3GAN, is set to join the larger franchise, which recently crossed over the $2 billion threshold with Chaves' work on The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Cooper, whose backlog includes work on Grimm, The 100, American Horror Story, Luke Cage, Jupiter's Legacy, Witches of East End, Chambers, and most recently, the horror film Malignant, has a lot to live up to because many expect The Nun 2 to top its predecessor similar to the second Annabelle film.
While the Nun sequel and the newly announced mainline continuation to the franchise have some fans excited, others are adamant that the Conjuring franchise has run its course and are unhappy to see more projects being announced when they believe it should have ended already. Whether the upcoming projects will be able to win over skeptical fans of the franchise will have to wait till The Nun 2 is released to be seen.
The Nun 2 is scheduled to be released in theaters on September 8, 2023.
Source: Deadline