How Frenchie's Return In The Nun 2 Fits Into The Conjuring Universe Timeline
When audiences return to the world of "The Nun" this fall, it'll be the first time the Conjuring Universe has checked in on Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) and her pal Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) in five years. You'd be forgiven, then, for forgetting exactly where we left the nun and the local farmer she befriended during her last encounter with Valak, the demon nun. At the end of "The Nun," all seems to be well until we learn that Frenchie has an inverted cross, a sign of demonic possession, on the back of his neck — something Irene doesn't seem to notice.
What's worse, the film then ties back into "The Conjuring" in a dark way, as we see revisit Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) giving a presentation decades in the future, revealing that they eventually performed an exorcism on Frenchie. The exorcism does not go well; Lorraine has a terrifying face-to-face encounter with Valak, and Frenchie later meets a grim fate.
According to a feature in the September 2023 issue of SFX Magazine, "The Nun II" picks up the saga of Irene and Frenchie later on — but not so late that we know the full story of his exorcism yet. "I wouldn't want to give anything away, but this is continuing the timeline," director Michael Chaves told the outlet. He explains: "Anyone who saw the first 'Conjuring' knows that Maurice [aka Frenchie] is possessed and then exorcized by the Warrens, and we know that that happens in the late '60s in the 'Conjuring' timeline."
The reveal that Frenchie is actually Maurice, a guy we saw pop up in the very first "Conjuring" movie, struck me as a silly tie-in at the time "The Nun" was released, but with so much time between films, I'm actually interested to see how the sequel will deepen that connection.
'There's other big ideas and big swings in there'
Still, don't expect to get all the answers right away. "This is set in the '50s so we're still a ways off from that," Chaves says. "The events of what happens in-between this starts to fill out that story a little bit more." It sounds like we should expect this movie to be yet another piece of the Conjuring-verse puzzle, but not necessarily a self-contained one. At this point, the demon Valak seems like this franchise's Thanos: a big bad who can't be stopped in the course of just one movie.
Chaves seems to agree. "There's a line in the movie: 'Demons are infinite,'" the filmmaker told SFX. "I like the idea that she's always been here in different forms," he added. "I think that there's still more stories of Valak the demon nun to be told."
It's no surprise that this movie is set to be pretty serialized: by the time "The Nun II" hits theaters, the Conjuring Universe will be comprised of nine different movies (if you count "The Curse of La Llorona," which apparently Chaves doesn't), including some perfectly spaced prequels that can leave room for more. The movies are also overtly interconnected, even when casual viewers may not be able to spot every intertextual reference. "There's other big ideas and big swings in there, and it's filled with a bunch of cool Easter eggs," Chaves says of "The Nun II." "Without giving anything away it continues to fill out the picture and the bigger canvas."
Canvas, eh? Like the one on which that horrible picture of Valak was painted in "The Conjuring 2"? I see what he did there.
The poor guy just wants to settle down
The good news is, Frenchie fans might still get a little bit of calm before the storm that is his inevitable exorcism. When the new film picks up, he'll be working at a French boarding school that Sister Irene stumbles upon while on the hunt for Valak.
"You can see that the effects of the last movie have maybe made him ready to wind down his story or maybe find someone to share it with," Chaves tells SFX. "So that's where we find him, and then we start to realize that all is not right," he says, hinting that — as we all know — "something escaped" in the first film. So the guy's possessed, sure, but he's also looking for love, and who can fault him for that?
"The Nun II" hits theaters on September 8, 2023.