“She's still around” – Annabelle 4 gets major update from director ahead of The Conjuring: Last Rites

In 2019, Annabelle came back home and let her friends and a dog out. Now it's 2025 and there's a word on Annabelle 4 by Gary Dauberman, who wrote all three spin-off films in The Conjuring franchise and directed the third. It seems like there has been some talk going on on the inside, as he shared with CBR while discussing Until Dawn, whose trailer we got to see this January. He said,

"It's been talked about. That's all I can... that's all I'll say about it. I mean, she's still around. You could do a modern day one."

Other than Annabelle, The Conjuring Universe has, of course, three mainline The Conjuring films and a couple of The Nun films, and now fans are waiting for Last Rites, whose title came to us at CinemaCon 2023. But it's only the first phase of the film so we can hope for more, including Annabelle 4 in future updates.

Things are looking in favor for Annabelle 4

Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren return in Annabelle Comes Home. (Image via Warner Bros. Entertainment)

If we look at past discussions about Annabelle 4, things have worked out, and based on that, it is safe to say that it's pretty much in the mind of the creators. In another interview, Gary appeared in, for Entertainment Weekly, in 2019, he said that,

"But I didn't look at this process, or I know James (Wan, producer) didn't, going, 'What other stuff can we absolutely spin-off into other movies?' [It's about] what works for this movie, and then if people seem to dig it, then we'll got from there."

He also mentioned how The Nun came to be, which was mostly because the fans really liked the chills that Nun from Conjuring 2 sent down their spines. It was a commercial success as it went on to earn $366 million at the box office, but a critical disaster, as its Rotten Tomatoes score (24%) indicates. Its sequel was still better, speaking critically, as it currently sits with 51% approval on RT.

The first Annabelle is pretty much the same as The Nun, critically and commercially but Annabelle: Creation was a real horror that fans and critics loved. However, the critical score came down again with the third but it wasn't as bad as the first. If we go by commercial success, Annabelle 4 has a lot of potential to come to fruition.

But then it's also about New Line Cinema, who gets to decide where they'll go, as Dauberman mentioned in his chat with CBR.

What other potential projects can The Conjuring Universe give us other than Annabelle 4?

The Conjuring: Last Rites will conclude phase one of The Conjuring Universe. (Image via Warner Bros. Entertainment)

Apart from a potential Annabelle film, a Crooked Man movie is one project that entered development since 2017, but things didn't really work out in its favor so Mike Van Waes, who was brought in for the screenplay, confirmed in 2022 that it's not moving forward. Though he still has hopes for it.

Other than that, all we can say is that the friends this Annabelle doll brought alongside her in the third film can get to star in their own films. Phase two of this horror universe can use its skills to send chills down audiences' spines in theaters.