Candyman is back. Producer Jordan Peele teams up director Nia DaCosta to reinvent the famous 1992 horror classic in the first official trailer for the sequel, released on Thursday. The new film, set in present day and dubbed Peele’s “spiritual sequel,” hits theaters this summer on June 12.
“The urban legend is, if you say his name five times while looking in the mirror, he appears in the reflection and kills you,” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II says in the beginning of the teaser. The Watchmen star plays Anthony McCoy, a visual artist who moves into a luxury loft in the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood. He lives with his girlfriend, a gallery director Brianna Cartwright, played by Teyonah Parris.
When Anthony sets out to make his mark on the art scene in Chicago, he learns about the true horror story behind Candyman from a Cabrini-Green old-timer, played by Colman Domingo (HBO’s Euphoria, Assassination Nation). — That’s when Anthony begins to explore the story even deeper for his own artistic inspiration, but ends up unlocking the frightening past of Candyman’s violent presence.
“I am the writing on the wall, the sweet smell of blood. Be my victim,” Candyman says in the teaser. It’s unclear who plays the titular character in the 2020 sequel.
Candyman was adapted from Clive Barker‘s “Books of Blood” short story, “The Forbidden” in 1992. The original Candyman starred Tony Todd as the titular character, a former slave, who if you say his name five times in the mirror, he comes for you. Todd is expected to appear in the followup. Candyman hits theaters on June 12, 2020.