The Conjuring: Last Rites marks the end of Ed & Lorraine Warren’s on-screen adventures after twelve years, but the franchise will likely continue in some way. The Conjuring has several spinoff projects that have consistently succeeded at the box office, and Last Rites‘ strong commercial performance means that Warner Bros. won’t pᴀss up this money machine any time soon.

However, the Conjuring spinoffs have gone in so many different directions over the years that it’s difficult to predict exactly what’s next for the franchise. Movies like Annabelle and The Nun are reliable box office properties that could be due another sequel, but their critical reception has been somewhat mixed over the years.

The main series is what critics have typically gravitated towards, but with Wilson & Farmiga stepping back, The Conjuring 5 seems like an impossibility. The ending of Last Rites doesn’t explicitly set up another movie, but the film does introduce two key characters who could prove to be the future of the franchise.

A Conjuring Prequel Is The Franchise’s Best Path Forward

Last Rites introduced Orion Smith and Madison Lawlor as younger versions of Ed and Lorraine Warren — potentially setting up a prequel in the franchise’s future. The real-life investigators met when they were just fourteen years old, and while their supernatural careers didn’t start until much later, there’s plenty of room to create an interesting story in this timeframe.

Although Smith and Lawlor’s roles in Last Rites are only brief in comparison to their older counterparts, the fact that The Conjuring has officially cast younger versions of Ed & Lorraine is an important step towards this prospective prequel coming to fruition. The movie could get underway promptly, without wasting any time looking for the right actors.

The main series Conjuring movies have consistently been the most acclaimed and beloved entries in this overarching franchise, so it wouldn’t make sense for Warner Bros. to abandon the property entirely in favor of riskier series like Annabelle or The Nun. A sequel doesn’t seem possible following Wilson & Farmiga’s exits, so a prequel would be the next best thing.

There are multiple rumored Conjuring projects in development, but nothing has been confirmed at this stage. The studio will most likely wait to see how audiences respond to Last Rites before making a firm decision — and the strong box office performance is a clear step in the right direction for this prequel.

People want The Conjuring, and the stage has already been perfectly set for another movie set in Ed & Lorraine’s past. It would be refreshing to see these characters before they got swept up in the world of paranormal investigation, perhaps through a more character-driven story that rewards fans of the franchise who’ve been there since the very beginning.