The Conjuring is one of the most successful modern horror franchises and will continue with The Conjuring 4 or The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Conjuring series follows the adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a couple of real-life paranormal experts and demonologists. The films are extreme embellishments of their various cases throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and while they were well known in some circles at the time, the movies have increased their fame and notoriety over the past few years.
There have even been various spin-offs utilizing cases that aren’t explored in the main Conjuring movies, such as the Annabelle franchise and movies like The Nun and The Curse of La Llorona. There are plenty of other Ed and Lorraine Warren cases begging to get the big-screen treatment, and it’ll be intriguing to see which one the Conjurverse chooses to pick up next. James Wan now has two wildly popular franchises on his hands, with Saw also picking up steam again with the advent of Saw 10. Here’s everything that’s known about The Conjuring 4 in terms of news, casting, story details, and more.
The Latest The Conjuring 4 News
Significant Conjuring 4 news came in October 2022, when The Conjuring 4 was greenlit. The announcement came with some further info for what’s possibly the last Ed and Lorraine Warren movie in the Conjurverse. What’s known is that the film will penned by The Conjuring 2 and 3 screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, and James Wan and Peter Safran are on to produce the new Conjuring movie. A director has, thus far, not been attached to The Conjuring 4.
In addition, the official The Conjuring 4 title has been revealed. The next installment to Wan’s franchise is titled The Conjuring: Last Rites, a fitting moniker for what will close out the overarching Ed and Lorraine Warren movie stories. However, that doesn’t mean The Conjuring 4 will be the last story that is told. Reportedly, a Conjuring TV show is in development at HBO Max (now just Max), and it will continue the story where the movies leave off. Not much else is known about The Conjuring TV show outside of its announcement on April 12th, 2023, but the television series aims to continue where the movies leave off.
The Conjuring 4 Is Confirmed
In October of 2022, Conjuring franchise creator James Wan officially confirmed that The Conjuring 4 was on the way. New Line Cinema is currently preparing production for the upcoming new Conjuring movie, and it will be written by The Conjuring 2 and 3 writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. James Wan and Peter Safran will return to co-produce The Conjuring: Last Rites.
The next Conjuring movie being The Conjuring 4 is a huge departure from where the Conjurverse plan stood a few years prior, when it seemed like expansion and growth were central. The long-awaited Crooked Man movie has now been canceled, as have plans to craft a new Conjuring spin-off around the demons introduced in The Devil Made Me Do It. While The Nun 2 is still slated for a 2023 release, James Wan has hinted that The Conjuring 4 may be the end of the franchise.
Speaking in an interview (via Collider), Wan mentioned that part of the reason he’s been so considerate with the next installments in The Conjuring franchise is that he and his team “take our time to make sure we get it right and to make sure the emotion of the Warren stories that we want to tell, and moving into, and potentially wrapping up, we just want to make sure that it’s the right thing, the right story that we’re telling.” While there’s nothing confirmed yet, it could be that The Conjuring 4 is the final chapter in James Wan’s epic horror saga.
The Conjuring 4 Release Date Info
Now that The Conjuring 4 has been greenlit, the speculation surrounding The Conjuring 4 release date can finally commence. The producers, writers, and cast of the previous films have all said they’d be happy to come back, however, there’s no concrete release date yet for The Conjuring: Last Rites. There was a three-year gap between the first and second Conjuring movies and a five-year gap between the second and The Devil Made Me Do It. It can be expected that The Conjuring 4 might take a similar amount of time, and it could be released sometime in 2024 or 2025.
The Conjuring 4 Cast
Only two cast members have been confirmed thus far for The Conjuring 4, and that is Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren, and Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren. The only other cast member that could return for the upcoming installment could be their daughter, Judy Warren. However, the actress who plays her is up in the air. Judy Warren was initially played by Sterling Jerins in The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2.
That being said, the actress was recast for Annabelle Comes Home and was portrayed by McKenna Grace. The cast of The Conjuring 4 will see an entirely new set of characters, as the Warrens pick up another supernatural case. The Conjuring Universe has proven to be one of the more successful examples of a cinematic universe outside of Marvel or DC. Warner Bros no doubt sees it as a continuously lucrative franchise, and thus the new The Conjuring sequel, The Conjuring: Last Rites, is officially on the way.
The Conjuring 4 Story Details
As for the new Conjuring movie storyline, nothing so far is known. With The Devil Made Me Do It ending in 1981, it’s expected that The Conjuring 4 movie would take place sometime during the 1980s. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga would return as Ed and Lorraine Warren and the Warrens had plenty of cases during the decade that could serve as the basis for the next film’s story. In 1986, they had a case that later went on to loosely inspire the 2009 film The Haunting in Connecticut, so the producers may try to avoid the Warrens’ more famous cases in order to keep the series fresh.
One case they could use is the terrifying story of the Smurl haunting, which the Warrens investigated in 1986. Either way, the fact that a new The Conjuring TV series is in the works suggests that The Conjuring 4 story could end on an ambiguous note. When The Conjuring TV show was announced, it was reported that the series would continue the storyline of the movies. Since The Conjuring movies generally follow a linear chronological timeline, it’s likely that the series will pick up after Arne Cheyenne Johnson’s trial in 1981, which was the main story of The Conjuring 3.
The Conjuring 4 Trailer
The Conjuring 4 trailer sadly has not been released yet. The writing stages are only just beginning for The Conjuring 4 and a production schedule has not been released. News about The Conjuring 4 trailer might come out closer to the projected release window, which sees the film debuting sometime in 2024 or 2025. Hopefully, The Conjuring‘s next sequel, The Conjuring 4, will live up to the universe that the franchise has created, properly bringing Ed and Lorraine Warren’s story to a close, which the television series will then pick up.
