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James Wan hints that The Conjuring 4 may be the final film in the franchise. In October 2022, it was officially announced that The Conjuring 4 was in the works with writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick returning to the pen the script, one of the minds behind The Conjuring 2 and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. In 2021, the third Conjuring movie grossed over $206 million at the box office, which was enough to push the franchise's total earnings over $2 billion and make it the highest-grossing horror franchise in history. But still, the overall future of The Conjuring franchise remains uncertain.

Now, just a few months after The Conjuring 4 was confirmed, James Wan has hinted at some disappointing news for the future of the horror franchise. During a recent interview with Collider, Wan hinted at The Conjuring 4 "potentially wrapping up" the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren. When asked for clarification if the fourth film will in fact be the last, The Conjuring franchise's producer, original director, and overall mastermind responded cryptically, "We never know. You never know. We'll see." Read Wan's full comments below:

Yeah, we are working on it right now. With the Conjuring films, we are very precious about [them]. And so we kind of want to just take our time to make sure we get it right and to make sure the emotion of the Warren stories that we want to tell, and moving into, and potentially wrapping up, we just want to make sure that it's the right thing, the right story that we're telling.

Everything We Know About The Conjuring 4

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Wan's comment hinting at The Conjuring 4 potentially wrapping up the franchise does not come as much of a surprise. The most recent film, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, was criticized as one of the weaker installments, a telltale sign that a film series should seriously consider wrapping things up. What's unclear from Wan's comments is whether The Conjuring 4 could potentially end the mainline series, or the horror franchise as a whole, which includes spinoff film series like Annabelle and The Nun.

With Johnson-McGoldrick returning as writer, The Conjuring 4 does not yet have a director attached. Michael Chaves, who previously helmed The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do, is currently filming The Nun 2 which once again follows Taissa Farmiga's Sister Irene as she investigates the murder of a priest in 1956 France and comes face to face with the demon Valak. In the past, Wan has teased the possibility of having Taissa Farmiga's character somehow meet Lorraine Warren (who is played by her real-life sister Vera Farmiga) in-universe in order to "make it all come full circle."

Plot details for The Conjuring 4 are also being kept under wraps, though it will see the return of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson's paranormal investigators, Lorraine and Ed Warren, as they take on a new case. Like past films, The Conjuring 4 will likely be based on the alleged hauntings the real-life Warren couple actually investigated. Much more will be revealed as The Conjuring 4 progresses through development. Until then, fans can look forward to The Nun 2, which is scheduled to hit theaters on September 8, 2023.

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It gets way too hard to pack the same kind of punch that Parts I and II did. In fact, it was a surprise for me that Part II, to a decent extent, managed to match up Part I. However, if Wan can end things with a blast, then bring it on...