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The horror genre has been thriving for years, to the delight of fans like me. Some of the best horror movies from recent memory have come from filmmaker James Wan, including The Conjuring franchise (which is streaming with a Max subscription). There were plans for a Crooked Man spinoff, but it looks like the cinematic universe will end with the upcoming horror movie The Conjuring: The Last Rites. And Wan and producer Peter Safran explained why that never happened.
What we know about The Conjuring: The Last Rites is limited, but it looks like it’s going to be the final chapter of the long-running franchise. This a bummer for fans who were hoping to see The Crooked Man bring something new to the universe, but it turns out that those plans were actually scrapped thanks to the popularity of The Nun. As Safran revealed in an interview with EW:
We thought the Crooked Man was basically going to be the Annabelle for Conjuring 2…but when the audience saw the movie, they wanted to know more about the nun. That’s what they gravitated towards. So you got to listen to your fans, you got to listen to the audience.
So that explains it. As horror fans will know, The Nun became its own franchise, with two different movies starring Taissa Farmiga. That titular villain had one of the scariest senes in The Conjuring 2, even more than its main antagonist The Crooked Man. And as such, plans for the latter creature to gets its own movie eventually faded away.
But just because the Crooked Man movie got scrapped doesn’t mean that James Wan doesn’t still have passion for that horror project. In that same interview, the Saw filmmaker revealed that he’s still got ideas for what that spinoff could be, offering:
I still have a movie in my head that I would hopefully love to get off the ground one day, but we’ll see. I get fans that reach out to me every now and then, begging us to make a Crooked Man movie. Just as a fan, I would love to do it one day, if I can convince the studio to do so.
Well, I’m going to keep crossing my fingers that his happens. Because while the main Conjuring franchise is ending, perhaps Blumhouse will keep the spinoffs alive. Wan’s reputation with horror is stellar, and he’s been able to bring bonkers projects like Malignant to life. So maybe he’ll get a chance at The Crooked Man sometime in the future… especially because he’s clearly so passionate about the project.
The Conjuring: Last Rites will hit theaters September 5th as part of the 2025 movie release list. We’ll just have to wait and see if it’s actually the end of the entire franchise as a whole.