The Conjuring 2 spin-off The Nun sets The Hallow's Corin Hardy to direct

[*This article contains mild spoilers for The Conjuring 2*]

Warner Bros. Pictures have hired The Hallow filmmaker Corin Hardy to direct its upcoming The Conjuring 2 spin-off. Following in the footsteps of Annabelle – the creepy doll which became the focus of a standalone movie in 2014, after she appeared in James Wan's The Conjuring the previous year – this outing will centre on the ghoulish Nun, which featured in the second instalment in 2016.

If you haven't seen the follow-up, you won't have met this creepy creature, so all we will tell you is that it closely resembles the ghouls seen in Wan's other film series Insidious, a franchise of American horror films by FilmDistrict. If you have seen The Conjuring 2, however, you'll already know she's particularly menacing.

In The Conjuring 2, the Nun (played by a heavily make-upped Bonnie Aarons) plagues clairvoyant Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) in visions, while husband Ed (Patrick Wilson) paints her after seeing her in a dream. Of course, in true horror style, she ultimately becomes more physical towards the film's finale and seeks to harm Ed in a very bad way, which in turns tortures helpless Lorraine.

Interestingly, given how popular she has proved among scary movie fans, the villain wasn't even in the film until three months before cinematic release. Wan originally planned to include a more traditional horned demon, but at the last minute, an image of the Nun came to him and the studio granted him permission to include her by reshooting some scenes.

For the spin-off, which is expected to be titled The Nun, Hardy will work from a script written by Annabelle scribe Gary Dauberman and Wan. Before he'll start production on this project however, he is set to helm an upcoming remake of crime fantasy The Crow, rumoured to be starring Aquaman's Jason Momoa.

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