The original villain in James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 has been revealed via some set photos, and it isn’t the Nun. The 2016 sequel to 2013’s The Conjuring highlighted the return of real-life supernatural investigation duo Ed and Lorraine Warren as they traveled to England.
The first film in the franchise was a somewhat unexpected hit, grossing nearly $300 million on a $41 million budget. After its phenomenal success, the idea of a sequel seemed obvious and Wan returned with a film that actually managed to outperform the original. Clearly, audiences were eager for the sort of scares that the series provided. Both the first Conjuring film as well as its sequel featured villains that had audiences so fascinated (and terrified) that the characters each got their own spin-off films. In the case of The Conjuring, this was the Anabelle series, which to date has three entries to its credit. The Conjuring 2, however, utilized the arguably far more frightening character known simply as The Nun. The film was a huge box office success, and a sequel is currently in the works.
While fans of The Nun can’t seem to get enough of the creepy figure, the truth of the matter is that the character came extremely close to never existing in the first place. As it turns out, the central villain of The Conjuring 2 was almost an elaborate winged demon instead. The truth about this surfaced recently, as Wan took to his Instagram account to show off photos of the demon and tell the story of how and why the film ultimately ended up with the Nun. Check out all the photos below of what could have been:
Although Wan’s animatronic demon certainly looks amazing, and it’s clear that a great deal of time and effort was put into its construction, he likely made the right decision to replace it with the Nun. These photos show off the kind of monster that doesn’t seem to suit the creepy, supernatural mood of the film. Wan calling the demon “too out of left-field for the film” seems a fair assessment, as its inclusion likely would have taken things to an entirely different level than originally intended. The Nun, on the other hand, fits in nicely not only with the sequel’s story but also within the franchise as a whole. The character took a real-life concept—in this case, Lorraine Warren’s reverence for nuns, and weaved it into the story. Wan wrote, "It needed to be more grounded and personal — something that would take Lorraine’s faith and try to test/corrupt it." That connection to reality and familiarity is arguably what made it so frightening.
With a third Conjuring film on its way, it will be interesting to see just what Wan comes up with to represent a villain. So far the series has managed to stay fairly restrained with its horror, though The Conjuring 2 did up the ante slightly. Still, although it’s a shame to have wasted so much time and money on the animatronic demon, it’s proof that Wan has a clear vision of how he wants the films in the franchise to be. That sort of quality should be encouraging for fans who love what’s taken place so far.
Source: James Wan via Instagram