A big component of the current horror boom is nostalgia and that has seen multiple horror icons returning from the grave for new reigns of terror. One of the next horror icons making a comeback is Candyman, who is getting a reboot from producer Jordan Peele. Actor Tony Todd, who played Candyman in the 1992 film and its sequels, has mixed feelings about the reboot, as he explained:
I have mixed feelings because I thought they were gonna make this 15 years ago. If this had been 10 years ago when I had heard news, I would have been devastated. I would have fought for it. Now I'm in a different place. I've got so many other options that even if they make it without me, which I doubt, the attention the new movie will create will lead folks back to the original [film] because people like to see the source material.
Tony Todd seems to be torn between his own love and nostalgia for Candyman and where he is at right now in his career and in his life. As he told Syfy Wire, a decade ago he would have been hurt at the news and would have fought to be a part of the Candyman reboot. But now, he doesn't have that the same strong feelings on the matter that he once did.
Time has given him perspective and a prolific career, so if he isn't involved at all with the Candyman reboot, he's fine with it. He has a very mature outlook on the matter too and understands that just because Candyman is getting rebooted, that doesn't erase the 1992 Candyman from history. Ideally, the new film leads to people discovering the original for the first time.
Although he has mixed feelings about Candyman getting rebooted, Tony Todd does see now as an appropriate time to do so as the story is just as relevant today as it was over 25 years ago:
In 2018, I think there are a few neighborhoods that could use some Candyman justice, you know what I'm saying? I'm just happy that as an African-American man, that Candyman has once again been given the nod to enter people's consciousness. I hope that they don't dance around the relationship between Candyman and the love of his life, the reason for his death and that they are actually allowed to kiss. [Back then] it was rare that African-American male film stars got to kiss any of the white leading ladies they worked with. I'm just speaking my mind here.
For those unfamiliar with the Candyman mythology, Spoiler Alert, Candyman was the son of a slave who fell in love with a white woman. His lover's father set upon him with a lynch mob, cutting off his hand and replacing it with a hook and covering him in honey and letting bees sting him to death. In the film, his ghost haunted the Cabrini-Green housing projects in Chicago.
You can see the racial elements to the story that seem like a perfect fit for the director of Get Out to be involved with. Tony Todd sees the Candyman reboot as an opportunity to tell a relevant story in a culture that is perhaps more willing to listen than it once was.
Tony Todd wants to see the interracial relationship between Candyman and his lover be more explicit than it was in the past, showing that ultimately this is a tragic and romantic character who loved someone society said he wasn't supposed to.
Although he has somewhat mixed feelings on the reboot, Tony Todd has said in the past that he would be up for being a part of the film in some way because he knows that Jordan Peele will tackle the real meaning of the story and won't shy away from the racial elements.
Maybe he'll get a chance because while it was initially called a reboot/remake, it actually sounds like it is going to be more of a reboot-quel in the vein of this year's Halloween. It is being called a "spiritual sequel" to the 1992 film and will take place in the gentrified area of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green projects once stood. It's unclear if the two Candyman sequels will be recognized or ignored.
Directing the new Candyman will be Nia DaCosta. Candyman is scheduled for release on June 12, 2020. For all of the biggest movies hitting theaters next year, check out our 2019 release schedule.
