The Conjuring Spin-Off Is Officially Canceled
James Wan reveals on Instagram that his planned The Conjuring spinoff about The Crooked Man is not moving forward.
Fans of The Conjuring are in for a little bit of disappointment today, as James Wan revealed in an Instagram post that the spin-off featuring the Crooked Man character would not be seeing the light of day. While this is certainly sad news, Wan made up for it by sharing several behind-the-scenes pictures of actor Javier Botet in full costume. The terrifying post gives fans our best look at the demon yet.
James Wan also shares an interesting tidbit about how he used old-school camera tricks, along with the physical talents of Botet, in The Conjuring 2 to give the Crooked Man his supernatural movements. Wan said that people even thought that the character was CGI at the time, but he actually just used slow motion and reverse playback to give the character a more paranormal presence. Wan ends the post on a hopeful note, saying that we could maybe one day get the spin-off of the character.
Fortunately, The Conjuring universe is still moving forward even if we don’t get a full-fledged spin-off for the Crooked Man. In fact, a spin-off of The Conjuring 2 is already getting a sequel of its own. Fans of the film series will remember that the demon Valak’s other avatar, the Nun, got its own spin-off prequel film in 2018.
The Nun 2 is on its way, with a release date currently set for September 8, 2023. Meanwhile, The Conjuring 4 is also in the works so there’s always the possibility that the Crooked Man character could make an appearance in either of these upcoming films set in James Wan’s Conjuring universe. The character was pretty popular, so it’s hard to believe that they would leave it behind altogether, considering they almost made a spin-off film.
With that being said, there have been several films set in The Conjuring universe since the Crooked Man appeared in the second film, so maybe he’ll continue to be a one-off character. Obviously, fans are hoping that won’t be the case, but not everything can go the way we want it to in Hollywood. Clearly Wan has love for the character though, so it seems unlikely he’d forget him altogether.
While James Wan is on board as a producer for the upcoming The Nun 2, he’s likely way too busy to direct anything related to The Conjuring universe or the Crooked Man anyway. Wan’s next directorial effort is the massive upcoming blockbuster Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. His hands have likely been plenty full with everything involved in that film, including the release delays, cast-related controversies, and the major parent company merger of Warner Discovery.
We’ll finally get to see the fruits of James Wan’s labors when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes out on December 25, 2023. In the meantime, if you want to revisit The Conjuring 2 and have nightmares of the Crooked Man tonight, you can stream the movie on HBO Max. You can also watch other Conjuring movies along with the Annabelle films from the same universe.
