The evil nun featured in director James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 (watch it HERE) got her own spin-off movie that was appropriately called The Nun (watch that one HERE), and now The Nun 2 is heading toward a September 2023 release. But it’s a well known story by now that the nun wasn’t originally intended to be in The Conjuring 2. She was a last minute replacement for a winged demon – and Wan has just shared a video of that demon on his Instagram page! You can check it out in the embed below, along with the following explanation:
The original VALAK in The Conjuring 2 was going to be this winged demon. A beautifully/hideously sculpted animatronic puppet head and practical body-suit by the super talented @justin.raleigh (whom I’ve worked with on pretty much all my movies since Insidious 1) and his team @fracturedfxinc. worn by @j_bishara.
I think I have only one fully finished shot with CGI wings in place. It was really grand and epic. But as cool as it was, it felt out of place within the Conjuring world we had built. And so during post production, I reconceived the villain — feeling it needed to be something more grounded, more personal, and creepier. And thus the demonic Nun was born. We cast the amazing @bonnieaarons1 for the role (makeup by another talented Wan-alumni @eleanormakeup, we’ve worked together since SAW!). All the nun stuff was shot during additional photography, including coming up with new scare set-pieces like the “painting on the wall”, and used visual effects to put the new villain into existing scenes.
Wan directed The Conjuring 2 from a screenplay he crafted with Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes, and David Leslie Johnson. The film has the following synopsis:
In 1977, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren come out of a self-imposed sabbatical to travel to Enfield, a borough in north London. There, they meet Peggy Hodgson, an overwhelmed single mother of four who tells the couple that something evil is in her home. Ed and Lorraine believe her story when the youngest daughter starts to show signs of demonic possession. As the Warrens try to help the besieged girl, they become the next targets of the malicious spirit.
The Conjuring 2 stars Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Frances O’Connor, Madison Wolfe, Simon McBurney, and Franka Potente. With, as Wan mentioned, Bonnie Aarons as the nun.
Do you think replacing the demon with the nun was a good choice for The Conjuring 2? Let us know by leaving a comment below.