After spending years as a comedy talent, Jordan Peele made a big splash in the horror genre in early 2017 with Get Out, his debut as a film director. Peele's next directorial contribution to that realm, Us, arrives next March, but he also has his hands in some other spooky projects, including producing a new Candyman movie. Now word has come in that the next Candyman entry will be directed by Nia DaCosta.
Best known for writing and directing this year's Little Woods, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and received positive critical reception, Nia DaCosta has been hired to lead the charge on the new Candyman movie, per Deadline. She will be working off a script that was written by Jordan Peele and fellow producer Win Rosenfeld. The men are producing through their Monkeypaw Productions banner, in partnership with MGM.
It was also announced today that this new Candyman movie will be released on June 12, 2020. So far that's the only project to be placed on that release date, although it's preceded by Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5 and followed by a yet-to-be-revealed Pixar movie. You can be sure that the upcoming Candyman installment won't have that opening weekend to itself for long, so it will be interesting to see how the movie ultimately performs given the crowded cinematic landscape that time of year.
The final big piece of Candyman news that came out today was clarification on just how this new movie fits into the franchise. Although it was initially reported as being a remake/reboot, it's now being called a "spiritual sequel" to the 1992 movie, which was based off the short story "The Forbidden" by Clive Barker. The new Candyman movie will return to the neighborhood where the legend began: the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood.
While this description confirms the new Candyman movie will indeed be set in the same continuity as the original movie, it's unclear if that means Tony Todd will reprise the eponymous role or a new actor will be cast to terrorize the other characters. It also wasn't clarified if this movie will also take into account previous sequels Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh and Candyman: Day of the Dead, or if it will take a Halloween-like approach and only consider the first Candyman canon.
As the original Candyman legend goes, the entity, who was the son of a former slave and brutally killed by a lynch mob, is summoned when a person repeats his name in front of a mirror five times. Upon appearing, as one would expect, he goes on a killing spree. Whether the first Candyman returns or a new person with his own horrific past is given that title, you can be sure that he'll leave a lot of bodies in his wake.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on how this new Candyman movie is coming along. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release schedule to find out what's arriving in theaters a little sooner.
