Army of the Dead’s Matthias Schweighöfer joins The Conjuring: First Communion cast

Right, so The Conjuring franchise is still going, if you can believe it. After Last Rites absolutely cleaned up at the box office — we're talking nearly $500 million — of course New Line wasn't going to let the ghosts rest. Enter The Conjuring: First Communion, a prequel that drags us back to the early days of Ed and Lorraine Warren. But this time, it's not Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in the firing line.

$2.7 billion box office haul across nine films

New Cast, New Era

They've sorted their new Warrens: Garrett Wareing is your young Ed (you might know him from The Long Walk), and Amanda Fix is set to take on Lorraine (she was in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen). Both are stepping into some fairly hefty shoes, given how tied Patrick and Vera are to these roles. And now Matthias Schweighöfer joins the line-up, though what he's actually doing in the film is anyone’s guess — there’s not a whisper about his character. You’ll maybe recognise Schweighöfer from Christoph Nolan’s Oppenheimer (he played Werner Heisenberg) or as Ludwig Dieter in Army of the Dead and its offbeat prequel, Army of Thieves, which he also directed.

We know Rodrigue Huart is directing, using a script from Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg. The big date to circle is 10 September 2027, because that’s when First Communion is meant to hit cinemas. As for the actual plot, everything’s still well and truly under wraps.

What’s Next for The Conjuring?

At this point, the franchise has pulled in an absurd $2.7 billion globally over nine films, making it one of those rare horror machines that refuses to die. Producer Peter Safran is very much on the same page, saying Last Rites might have finished things for Patrick and Vera’s iteration, but not for the story as a whole. There’s 'a lot of fuel left in the tank,' according to him, and they're not just talking the films — there's a TV series on the way at HBO too.

• Nancy Won (Jessica Jones) is showrunner, writer, and executive producer for the HBO series
• Peter Cameron (WandaVision) and Cameron Squires (Gen V) have joined as writers
• Plot details are tightly under wraps, but it's said to follow on from the films

So between a big-screen prequel and a telly continuation, The Conjuring world is showing absolutely no signs of shutting up shop any time soon.