Nia DaCosta’sCandyman,a sequel to and reboot ofthe original 1992 horror film, has been rescheduled for theatrical release on August 27th, 2021. Originally planned as an offering for this year’s Halloween season, the newCandyman,like most everything else this year, has been postponed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The newCandymanreturns to Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood, which has fallen victim to a real modern monster: gentrification. Back in the day, Cabrini Green was a crime-ridden housing project with its own urban legend: anyone who faced a mirror and said “Candyman” five timeswould be horribly murderedby a vengeful ghost. Now, all the old towers have been torn down and replaced by luxury condos, but the legend persists.
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Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen) plays Anthony McCoy, the baby from the original 1992 film. Now an adult, he’s become a visual artist, and moves back into the new Cabrini Green with his girlfriend Brianna (Teyonah Parris,Mad Men,the forthcomingWanda/Vision). Anthony’s career is on the skids until he meets a long-time Cabrini Green resident, William Burke (Colman Domingo,Fear the Walking Dead), who tells him about the history behind the legend of the Candyman. In life, the ghost was Daniel Robitaille (Tony Todd), a black man in 19th-century New Orleans, who was hired to paint the portrait of the daughter of a wealthy white family. The two fell in love, but when her father found out about the affair, he sent a mob of townspeople to kill Daniel. In the end, Daniel was mutilated, covered in honey, andstung to death by bees.
Anthony proceeds to use that story, in all its lurid detail, as inspiration for a new series of paintings, and gets a lot more than he bargained for. As per Universal’s official plot summary, Anthony ends up “[opening] a door to a complex past that unravels his own destiny and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him ona collision course with destiny.” As one does.
Candymanalso stars Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Adulting), Kyle Kaminsky (DriverX), Vanessa Williams (no, the other one, who was onDays of Our Lives),and Rebecca Spence (Empire). Todd reprises his role from the original films as Daniel Robitaille. Some sources have reported that Cassie Kramer (Chicago Fire) plays the part of Helen Lyle, the protagonist of the 1992 film, which was originally portrayed by Virginia Madsen (Dune, Sideways); however, Kramer’s role is currentlylisted on IMDB as “Librarian.”
The newCandyman’sscript was co-written by DaCosta, Win Rosenfeld, and Jordan Peele (Get Out,Us); Rosenfeld and Peele also co-produced with Ian Cooper. The originalCandymanwas based onClive Barker’s 1985 short story"The Forbidden," moving its setting from Liverpool to Chicago, and Barker receives a “characters by” credit in the new film.
This is technically the fourth film in theCandymanseries, afterFarewell to the Flesh(1995) andDay of the Dead(1999). However, neither sequel really built off of the original 1992 film, treating Todd’s Candyman as more of a generic slasher villain than anything else, andDay of the Deadwassuch an overall misfirethat it killedCandymanas a franchise for almost 20 years. The new film, which was originally announced in September of 2018, is a visible return to the tone, themes, and setting of the 1992 original.
DaCosta’s next project as director is theuntitled sequel toCaptain Marvel, currently planned to release in 2022.
