The Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga chapters of The Conjuring universe might be coming to a close, but that doesn't mean horror's highest-grossing franchise is going anywhere. In fact, James Wan still has his hopes pinned on a Crooked Man spinoff.
Talk of a Crooked Man spinoff first emerged after 2016's The Conjuring 2. Played by genre mainstay Javier Botet (REC, It, The Last Voyage of the Demeter), the malicious spirit joins the demon Valak in terrorizing the Hodgson family. In 2017, Mike Van Waes was said to be writing the screenplay for a Crooked Man movie, with Wan and producer Peter Safran both producing. However, in 2022 the project was declared dead in the water by Wan, lamenting that it was “outside of [his] control”.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly about The Conjuring: Last Rites, the franchise creator and Malignant director says he hasn't given up hope just yet:
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.”
Should the movie have gone ahead, The Crooked Man would have been the second Conjuring spin-off after 2014's Annabelle, but it was Bonnie Aarons' turn as the terrifying nun demon Valak who stole the spotlight, ensuring her own spinoff with The Nun in 2018. Safran expands:
“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.”
Given that the franchise has grossed a worldwide box office total of over $2 billion, we can't imagine any studio would turn their noses up at the chance to get another The Conjuring spinoff off the ground. Watch this space.
