Editor’s Note: This article contains major spoilers for The Nun II.
The Big Picture
- The Nun II continues the story of demon Valak as it terrorizes Sister Irene once again, years after their first encounter.
- Director Michael Chaves explains the importance of keeping Valak and Frenchie as separate characters in the sequel, establishing Frenchie as someone worth saving.
- The sequel expands the mythology of the franchise, exploring what Valak was doing before encountering the Warrens in The Conjuring 2.
The Nun II continues the story of the mysterious demon, Valak (Bonnie Aarons), as it once again takes the form of a nun to terrorize Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga). The sequel takes place a few years after the first time the characters went head-to-head, with fate bringing them together again after Valak had found a very clever way of moving across Europe. The first movie ended with the shocking revelation that Valak had possessed Frenchie. During a recent interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, director Michael Chaves spoke about the importance of keeping Valak and Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) as separate characters in the sequel, regardless of the fact that the entity has been possessing the young man for quite some time:
“It was always a discussion. I think one of the big things is we wanted him to be – the relationship that he’s having with everyone at the school needs to be Frenchie. We need to establish someone that we love and is worth saving. And that’s one of the tricks of the movie, and a little bit of a magic trick or rule-bending is he needs to have a relationship with Sophie, with our young girl, he needs to have a relationship with Kate, the teacher, and you need to believe in these relationships and care about them even though we come to realize that Valak is within him, using him as a vessel.”
The director continued to explain why it was important to focus on Frenchie’s humanity to understand why it would be so painful for him to be yet another victim of Valak, as he has no control over the way the demon uses his body. Chaves continued, “That needed to be the true OG Frenchie, and it couldn’t be some Valak manipulation because I think if you thought that Valak was just becoming friends with Sophie to manipulate a situation, then everything was kind of thrown out the window. So that needed to be valid and you needed to feel like that was a relationship that was worth fighting for.”
The Nun sequel continues to expand the mythology of the franchise, explaining what Valak was up to before it ran into the Warrens during the events of The Conjuring 2. While the demon has been seemingly defeated with each appearance in The Conjuring Universe, it still manages to claim a few lives along the way. In addition to how dangerous Valak can become depending on the power level it finds itself in, most people who have an encounter with the demon don’t know how to get rid of it, which is why they need special help from the likes of Sister Irene and the Warrens.
Sister Irene Encounters New Friends in Her Fight Against an Old Enemy
Farmiga returns to her role of Sister Irene after the character was introduced during the first movie as one of the few people capable of stopping Valak in its tracks. This time around, she will be joined by Sister Debra (Storm Reid) as the two investigate why Valak has returned, and what it’s attempting to do in this new marathon of horror. Given how the monster has appeared further down in the Conjuring timeline, it is interesting to see how the main characters of The Nun II avoid being consumed by one of the most powerful antagonists in the franchise.
The Nun II is out now in theaters. Don’t miss the rest of Nemiroff’s conversation with Chaves, and in the meantime, check out our review of the latest entry in the Conjuring universe.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
