The Conjuring spin-offs have been manifesting faster than ghosts at an abandoned mental institution over the past couple of years, with the first of those, Annabelle, even inspiring a sequel of its own. So it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the OG Conjuring is getting another installment, as Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has hired a writer to bring The Conjuring 3 to undead life. That writer is David Leslie Johnson, who wrote last year’s The Conjuring 2 as well as the 2009 horror fake-out Orphan, this year’s crazy-eyed Katherine Heigl vehicle Unforgettable, and a handful of Walking Dead episodes. He’s also on board to write the purported Nightmare On Elm Street re-reboot, but we’ll not speak of such unholy things here.
Instead, we’ll focus on the fact that franchise creator James Wan is not expected to direct, but will be involved in some capacity. That capacity presumably includes script consultation, which means that Wan’s vision of a leap forward to the 1980s for the third installment in the retro horror franchise will probably come to pass. If that happens, it’s a safe bet that the decade’s (now long since debunked) Satanic Panic will be invoked, and presented as valid—much like the movies’ treatment of the Warrens themselves.