The Conjuring universe is expanding further into new depths of horror with a spin-off focusing on The Crooked Man, a character who first appeared in the sequel to James Wan’s horror franchise, after hiring writer Mike Van Waes to pen the script for the new project.

James Wan and Peter Safran are set to produce the spin-off which will be joining the Conjuring’s universe of evil, With Annabelle already making its spin-off debut its follow-up, Annabelle: Creation is due for release later this year. The next to come out of the hugely successful franchise comes in the form of The Nun which will star Demian Bichir as a priest who investigates the mysterious death of a nun as well as Vera Farmiga’s sister Taissa Farmiga which is due for release in 2018.

The Crooked Man character is based on an English nursery rhyme: “There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile/ He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile/ He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse/ And they all lived together in a little-crooked house.”

The Crooked Man

Van Waes is a fairly unknown name but he is proving to be somewhat of a hot property right now, with a special talent at pitching his scripts. Van Waes is already working with New Line Cinema after they took his original script based on a horror-filled world of The Wizard of Oz. Warner Bros. has their hands on the script for Hammerspace and after Harper Collins bought his proposal for his book Peeves, Fox animation has subsequently picked it up.

James Wan is proving to be a savvy filmmaker when it comes to his Conjuring world, the franchise including its spin-off’s and prequels have already earned $897 million worldwide to date, what’s next for Wan? We’re thinking world domination maybe?