The Conjuring movie series has bucked the diminishing returns sequel trend with a barnstorming box office opener for The Conjuring: Last Rites, and now we hear a TV series is moving ahead, too.
Plans for a The Conjuring TV show were first teased in 2023, but they’ve finally gained some weight. Some big names have joined the production, which is in the works at HBO.
Nancy Won is The Conjuring series’s showrunner. Shows she has worked on include Jessica Jones, for Netflix, Supernatural and Little Fires Everywhere.
Its lead writers have been named, too. Peter Cameron and Cameron Squires previously toiled away together on Marvel shows Agatha All Along and WandaVision.
Neither has big-name straight-up horror projects in their previous credits, suggesting — and yes, we’re making some leaps here — the show is likely to lean into the slightly campier and ridiculous side of the The Conjuring spin-off movies.
It’s seemingly a good time for HBO to get this one moving, as just days on from its release, The Conjuring: Last Rites has proved to be a smash hit.
The film had a $194 million opening weekend, which is the biggest yet for the series, thoroughly outperforming expectations. The Conjuring: Last Rites is already close to overtaking 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which made $206 million across its entire cinematic run.
What’s going on? Last Rites is pitched as the last chapter in this era of The Conjuring — let’s not call it a "Phase" as we’re not talking about the MCU here. But is that really all it takes to drag every fan to the cinema on the film’s opening days?
The Conjuring: Last Rites’ Metacritic score sits just one point above its predecessor, The Devil Made Me Do It, with a 54% rating. Given its reported budget of $55 million, this latest Conjuring flick may well already be in profit — despite this being the highest cost of the entire wider series to date.
If this film marks the end of the current Conjuring era, does this mean we’re looking at a The Conjuring TV show cast that doesn’t include Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga? There’s been no word from HBO, but we’d guess we may see fresh faces for this series. After all, being the tentpole names of the most successful horror franchise of them all tends to give you leverage to command a hefty fee. HBO may want to dodge that kind of thing.
Those in the UK can currently catch up on a whole slew of The Conjuring universe movies on Netflix, including the original, The Nun, Annabelle: Creation and The Conjuring 2.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
