The Nun Trailer: What Could This All Mean?
The trailer for New Line’s, The Nun was released this past Wednesday and it has me pretty excited about where it’s going to bring The Conjuring. Taking its place as the prequel to the entire Conjuring universe, The Nun holds the possibility of answering many questions about the demonic figure that has been weaved into the fabric of Ed and Lorraine’s cinematic adventures. Though these questions are about The Nun, anyone worried about spoilers from the rest of The Conjuring installments may want to proceed with caution.
First of all, the new trailer expands on the eerie post-credits sequence of Annabelle: Creation, where audiences watch an ominous, shadowed nun (presumably Valak) walking down a hallway with torches on the walls going out as he passes them. The sequence was very short, and really only served as a way of highlighting that the next film in the series was going to be about Valak.
The first spoken line of the short trailer explains that novice nun Sister Irene, played by Taissa Farmiga, began having visions as a child and, after she woke up, would be left with the image of a demonic looking nun in her mind. Fans of the series, or people who plan to rewatch the series, will notice that this is similar to Ed Warren’s state of mind in the start of The Conjuring 2, as explained while he is painting the picture of Valak (which is the same painting in the trailer of The Nun). As the trailer continues, it is explained that these visions are what eventually bring Farmiga’s character to Romania to investigate an abbey with a dark past (there goes the Borley Rectory possibility). The trailer ends shortly after though, lasting only a minute and a half, leaving fans with plenty of questions. Let’s get in to a couple.
Firstly, a major question is when in time The Nun is going to be set; it’s before The Conjuring, but how much before? In Annabelle: Creation, Sister Charlotte notices a nun hiding in the background of a picture of her at an abbey in Romania, where The Nun is set, but doesn’t recognize the nun. Audiences can see that it is indeed Valak standing in the shadow, though. Assuming the two abbeys are the same, another question is if Sister Charlotte was in Romania around the time that The Nun is going to be set.
More interesting is the fact that Taissa Farmiga, the younger sister of Vera Farmiga (Lorraine Warren), has been cast as Sister Irene, the protagonist of The Nun. While this may just be a coincidence, this brings up the question as to if Sister Irene and Lorraine Warren are somehow connected. While Valak was after Ed in The Conjuring 2, Lorraine reveals that the image of Valak has been with her since the Amityville case they investigated years earlier. This extended past with Valak could point to Lorraine being a descendant of Sister Irene, indicating a curse on the family. The description on the trailer of The Nun describes her as a ‘noviate’, meaning she has yet to become a full-blown nun and would be able to leave the church and begin a family otherwise.
The next question is how the world of Annabelle fits in to all of this. In Annabelle, the demon possessing the doll appears to Mia, the protagonist of the film, and looks nothing like a nun. Furthermore, Valak hasn’t been depicted as the sort of demon who possesses others. In the vast majority of his screen appearances, he has simply been shown as the demonic nun. As I said before though, Valak is the nun in the background of Sister Charlotte’s photo, meaning that there could be some sort of connection.
In addition to this is the scene in Annabelle: Creation in which an evil spirit with the appearance of a nun pushes Janice, the wheelchair-bound protagonist, through a barn door and locks her in. While this nun dressed nothing like Valak, it is notable that the figure of a nun was still used for the scene.
As the universe of The Conjuring grows, so do the questions of how everything will interconnect. With The Conjuring 2 and Annabelle: Creation both prominently including Valak, it will be interesting to see how this story arc unfolds. Then with athird Conjuring, a third Annabelle, and a movie about ‘The Crooked Man’ from Conjuring 2, all planned for some time in the future, New Line could be on the path to creating the next huge cinematic universe. The Nun is coming out in theaters on September 7th, and remember what the trailer told you; make sure you watch until the end (there could be teasers for the next movie)!
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