The Conjuring 4 Will Be the Final Installment, Michael Chaves Negotiating to Direct

The Warrens will investigate one more supernatural case before calling it quits in The Conjuring 4. And while both Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are reprising their roles as Ed and Lorraine Warren respectively, no other acting talent is officially attached to the project yet. But, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Chaves is currently negotiating to become the director. The Conjuring 4 is also said to be the final installment comprising the primary part of the film franchise.

Chaves directed Ed and Lorraine’s last go-round on the Silver Screen in 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. And Chaves is well-versed with The Conjuring Universe having helmed The Curse of La Llarona, The Conjuring 3 — the aforementioned The Devil Made Me Do It — and The Nun II.

Unfortunately for Chaves, even though his creative work on all three of his entries is brilliant, his Conjurings didn’t translate well at the box office. With the exception of Annabelle Comes Home ($20.3 million), Chaves’ three movies rank as the lowest among the entire franchise for their opening weekends domestically: The Nun II ($32.6 million), The Curse of La Llarona ($26.3 million) and The Conjuring 3 ($24.1 million).

The Conjuring: Last Rites

At last year’s CinemaCon in Las Vegas, which was held at Caesars Palace, Warner Bros. revealed that The Conjuring 4 would be titled The Conjuring: Last Rites. David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who also wrote the screenplay for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, will pen the Last Rites script.

In January of 2023, James Wan confirmed that he and his creative team were working on The Conjuring: Last Rites, even though it seems unlikely that he’ll direct the fourth of Ed (Wilson) and Lorraine (Farmiga) Warren’s big-screen adventures.

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Wan did direct the original Conjuring in 2013 and The Conjuring 2, but he’s probably better known by modern-day audiences for his work on the DCEU’s Aquaman films. But his horror legacy can’t be disputed thanks to Wan’s stellar contributions to the Saw, Insidious and Conjuring franchises. Wan said in an interview with Collider:

“Yeah, we are working on it [Conjuring 4] 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.”