'The Nun' Sequel Snags 'Luke Cage' and 'American Horror Story' Writer

The Conjuring series has dominated the genre world since its debut in 2013, earning itself [...]

The Conjuring series has dominated the genre world since its debut in 2013, earning itself sequels, spinoffs, and sequels to spinoffs. The last film in the franchise was the spinoff The Nun, which only earned 26% positive reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, yet it went on to become the most successful film at the box office, taking in more than $365 million worldwide. While various reports have surfaced about the future of the franchise, some fans were concerned that the film's poor critical reception would prevent a sequel from moving forward, though Deadline reports that Akela Cooper has been tapped to pen the script.

Cooper's previous credits include last year's slasher Hell Fest, as well as Netflix's Luke Cage and FX's American Horror Story. Details about the film's narrative have yet to be confirmed.

News of Cooper's hiring comes on the heels of Conjuring franchise producer revealing earlier this month that there were plans in store for the spinoff franchise.

"I think there is an inevitability to another Nun movie," Safran shared with Entertainment Weekly. "We have a really fun storyline for that teed up, so I think that that's the next one that will be written."

It's unclear what story could unfold, though, with both The Conjuring films and the Annabelle series exploring haunted happenings set within a household, the premise of The Nun would allow for much more ambitious supernatural stories.

"After Annabelle 2, we said, 'We've told several families-in-danger in a possessed environment [films]," Safran shared of what sets The Nun apart from the rest of the franchise. "We really wanted to go far away from that in terms of its look, its feel, the geography, the landscape, everything. Once we knew that people were truly interested in The Nun we said, 'This is a perfect opportunity to take it outside of America, to take it outside of what people are familiar with, and really place it in a unique environment.' [We] went over there and shot in Transylvania at those incredible hooded-door castles."

The producer added, "There's nobody better for it than [director] Corin [Hardy] was, because he embraced every element of the journey, of the difficulties of shooting there — to him that made it better, that made it more fun to shoot. He did a wonderful job under very very difficult circumstances. Even though, obviously, the film was somewhat savaged by critics, you don't get to that kind of box office success without at least the audience enjoying it. It's impossible, you can't have that."

The next film in the franchise is Annabelle Comes Home, which opens on June 28th, followed by The Conjuring 3, which opens on September 11, 2020.

Are you looking forward to the sequel? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

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