The New 'Candyman' is 'Aquaman's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

UPDATE: While this story stated Yahya Abdul-Mateen II would be playing Candyman, it has since been revealed that he will be playing a lead role in the film. You can read more about the latest casting reports.

The article as it initially ran continues below:

Get Out director Jordan Peele is set to reboot Candyman for a new era, and he's chosen Aquaman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II to play the new version of the supernatural killer!

Variety reports that Peele and Candyman director Nia DaCosta tapped Abdul-Mateen II for the role first made famous by character actor and horror icon Tony Todd, who has already expressed interest in being part of the reboot, despite mixed feelings about it.

For Yahya Abdul-Matten II, this continues a meteroic rise into stardom, having catapulted out of a villain role in Netflix's hip-hop history drama The Get Down, to a starring role (and big franchise future) in DC's Aquaman. Mateen is also set to make in appearance in Jordan Peele's second directorial effort, the doppleganger horror story Us, which hits theaters this spring.

The report by Variety also echoes earlier info on how this new Candyman film is approaching the story:

"The studio is touting the upcoming film as a "spiritual sequel" to the original. It will return to the neighborhood where the legend began: the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood.

The original 1992 Candyman was adapted from a Clive Barker story. A grad student (Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) begins working on a thesis looking at urban legends, and encounters the tale of the Candyman, the vengeful spirit of a hook-handed slave, who can be summoned by saying his name five times in the mirror. As the student followed the investigation into the bowels of Chicago's housing projects, she begins to discover that she and the evil entity known as Candyman share a connection going back centuries to a dark tale of racism and murder. The film went on to spawn two sequels throughout the mid and late '90s - but more importantly, it cemented its monster's cult status as an urban legend on school yards everywhere.

As Jordan Peele stated when the film was announced, Candyman is definitely a passion project for him:

"The original was a landmark film for black representation in the horror genre. Alongside Night of the Living Dead, Candyman was a major inspiration for me as a filmmaker — and to have a bold new talent like Nia at the helm of this project is truly exciting," Peele shared. "We are honored to bring the next chapter in the Candyman canon to life and eager to provide new audiences with an entry point to Clive Barker's legend."

"We cannot wait for the world to see what the mind-blowing combination of Jordan, Win, and Nia bring to the legend of Candyman," MGM Motion Picture Group president Jonathan Glickman shared in a statement. "They have created a story that will not only pay reverence to Clive Barker's haunting and brilliant source material,but is also thoroughly modern and will bring in a whole new generation of fans."

Stay tuned for details on the new Candyman, which is slated to hit theaters on June 12, 2020.

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