James Wan marks 'end of an era' with first BTS shot from franchise conclusion “The Conjuring: Last Rites”

"Last Rites" will close out the series' main storyline, but spinoffs like the "Annabelle" films may see further installments.

Horror impresario James Wan has shared the first behind-the-scenes photo of the upcoming conclusion to the Conjuring franchise.

"Always good to see and hang out with old friends," Wan wrote on Instagram, under a photo of two director's chairs embroidered with the names Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren. The real-life ghost hunting couple have been played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga since 2013. They'll fight their last demons in next year's The Conjuring: Last Rites. "Gonna miss everyone. End of an era," Wan wrote.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

The fourth and final installation in the Conjuring franchise was reported to be in development back in 2022, a year after the release of the third entry, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and while 2023's The Nun II was shooting in France.

Though it'll be the last time see Wilson's demonologist and Farmiga's medium take on the forces of darkness, the universe is only going to continue expanding. The Conjuring: Last Rites will conclude the main segment of the cinematic universe, but not either of its parallel franchises — The Nun and Annabelle.

Related: Decade of dread: James Wan on how The Conjuring spawned a universe of horror

Each of the films in Wilson and Farmiga's neck of the Conjuring woods follows a case taken on by the real demon-slaying, poltergeist-poaching couple they portrayed. The first film dramatized the Perron family haunting of the 1970s; The Conjuring 2 took on the Enfield poltergeist, one of the U.K.'s most infamous paranormal sagas; while The Devil Made Me Do It borrowed from the case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, the defendant in a murder trial to plead guilty on the grounds of demonic possession.

What case will be selected for the Warrens' final cinematic cage match is not yet known, but the case that first granted them national visibility, the Amityville Horror, has not yet been adapted as the basis of a Conjuring film.

Related: See the 'true' story behind The Conjuring in pictures

The extended Conjuring universe currently consists of three primary films starring Wilson and Farmiga, two films centered on the demonic abbess Valak and starring Taissa Farmiga, three films featuring the franchise's true star, the bedeviled babydoll Annabelle, and the standalone film The Curse of La Llorona, which does contain a cameo from Annabelle herself among other oblique Conjuring tie-ins.

A third entry in the Nun franchise and a fourth entry in the Annabelle franchise have not yet been announced. But Wan has several other irons roasting in the fire. There's a Conjuring series for Max in development, first announced last April; Teacup, a series adaptation of Robert R. McCammon's novel Stinger that Wan executive produced for Peacock; a live-action Gargoyles series for Disney+; and The Monkey, an upcoming film which will unite Wan with horror titans Stephen King (who authored the source material) and Osgood Perkins (the man behind Longlegs, who's attached to direct).

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.