The Conjuring 2 Opening Scene Spoilers; Producers Talk Sequel/Prequel/Spin-Off Possibilities
Staci Layne Wilson
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Today we’re finally able to begin sharing our set visit report for The Conjuring 2, and while Part 1 of our extensive coverage is now live, featuring chats with lead actors Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, and Frances O’Connor, it was producers Peter Safran and Rob Cowan who provided us with the juiciest early details and clued us in on whether or not a spin-off of the sequel might be in the works.
We also picked their brains as to if we’ll be seeing a prequel or another sequel in the Warrens’ saga as the franchise’s third installment and, most exciting of all, where the opening scene will be set.
Minor spoilers lurk below so proceed at your own risk…
Along the lines of the audience’s desire to see more of Annabelle from the first film, we ask Cowan if there was a character with the same kind of appeal in The Conjuring 2 such that we might get another spin-off.
“Yeah, there is,” he said. “There’s a character that we just had finished shooting some of, and I can’t say much about him, and again, the movie’s got to come out, we’ve got to see how the response is, but it’s a character that we love. We hope eventually, like Annabelle, that it could spin off into its own story.”
Safran elaborated, “The original Conjuring script was great, but when James came on, it became stellar. One of the first scenes he did was create that cold open with the Annabelle doll. He did that with the intent that something more could be created with Annabelle. It was intentional. There are a couple of things in this film where we could find ourselves a spin-off to create, but honestly, most of the reason we created an Annabelle spin-off was the audience reaction! People love that cold open small sequence and wanted to know more about the doll; the reaction was so strong.”
The first Conjuring set us up for a sequel so we wondered if this film leads into a third, or maybe there’s the possibly of a prequel?
Safran hedged a bit, saying, “We haven’t decided yet. We’ve talked about what might happen in the world of the Warrens; we spun off Annabelle, which will also get a sequel. In terms of what a third Conjuring would be, we haven’t delved into that yet. It all depends on where inspiration strikes, and it’ll be driven somewhat by James. We’ll figure it out. The Warrens are a great resource, but there aren’t that many unique cases. You have to make sure you come up with something that’s worthy of the Conjuring franchise.”
And speaking of that ending of the first film, in which they get a call about a house in Long Island, which most people could probably guess is Amityville, we asked Cowan: Was that a tease or just sort of a little Easter Egg in-joke? Would they really go down that path?
He surprised us with the following confirmation… “Yeah, we do. This movie starts in Amityville so the very beginning of the movie is what really happened: They went into Amityville and they hold a séance, and fairly quickly after the whole thing happened… they went in and hold the séance and wander around the house… there’s a very famous photograph of a little boy that’s in the house that they thought was one of the kids, so we play all of that out with a little bit of a hook moment that plays throughout the movie and then has a big payoff at the end of the movie. It’s interesting, a little kind of tidbit.”
“When we shot the movie, the original Conjuring, they said, ‘We just got a call about a case in London,’ and when we were just doing the final post, we had them loop it and change it to ‘Long Island,’ which was a little easier to do than saying ‘Amityville’ when they said ‘London.’ At that time we had already started talking about Enfield, and at that point it was one movie, so we just thought, ‘Well, if you want to give everybody a little fun thing, it’s better to have done Amityville.’ But it is a cool thing about them, about the Warrens, that they’ve touched on a lot of these very well-known events. We’re actually shooting it tomorrow; we’re shooting the Amityville sequence tomorrow,” he teased, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to tell you guys about it until now.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg that awaits in Part 2 of our The Conjuring 2 set visit report, which continues with more from Pete and Rob tomorrow.
The Conjuring 2 stars Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Frances O’Connor, Abhi Sinha, Lauren Esposito, Franka Potente, Simon McBurney, Simon Delaney, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Patrick McAuley, Benjamin Haigh, and Madison Wolfe.
It premiere in US theaters on June 10, 2016, and in the UK on June 17. For more visit The Conjuring on Facebook, The Conjuring on Twitter, and The Conjuring on Instagram.
Synopsis:
The supernatural thriller brings to the screen another real case from the files of renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, who, in one of their most terrifying paranormal investigations, travel to north London to help a single mother raising four children alone in a house plagued by malicious spirits.
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