Is Taissa Farmiga Playing Young Lorraine Warren in THE NUN?
This September, director Corin Hardy’s new The Conjuring spin-off The Nun will be hitting theaters. It stars Demián Bichir as Father Burke and Taissa Farmiga as a character known only as Sister Irene. This new film centers around the titular sister – a wimple-wearing demon named Valak – causing havoc at a Romanian monastery back in 1952.
Recently we have been hit with a trio of new images from the film and I figured we’d throw those in this article as well. Two comes to us via Empire, with one showing Father Burke, played by Demián Bichir, being preyed upon, and the other featuring Valak in all its nightmare glory. And the other comes to us via EW and features new lead Taissa Farmiga coming face-to-face (kinda) with the evil Nun. You can check all three out below.
But that’s not what we’re here today to talk about. No, today we’d like to take this opportunity to also put forth a theory we have been working on here at Dread Central. This theory puts forth the idea that The Nun lead actress Taissa Farmiga will be playing a younger version of her sister Vera Farmiga’s The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 character Lorraine Warren.
I mean The Nun takes place in 1952. The Conjuring took place in 1971. That’s a mere 9-year difference. And guess the age difference between Taissa and Vera Farmiga? 22 years… But still, they could totally bridge that age gap in the movies. Plus the timeline makes sense to Lorraine Warren’s actual age, who was born in 1927, which would put her at 25 in 1952, which is when The Nun takes place. And Taissa Farmiga is currently 23 years old.
The only issue with this theory is that Lorraine Warren is, of course, based on a real person, and taking such liberties as to say the real Lorraine Warren is really Taissa Farmiga’s Sister Irene character – with no basis in reality – is a bit of a stretch on screenwriters James Wan and Gary Dauberman’s part. But I’m thinking Wan and Dauberman aren’t too concerned with playing it by the book. After all, The Nun is (mostly) a complete fabrication in and of it/herself. The entity inside her Valak is based on a real demon, but the Nun is made up.
The character made her first appearance in James Wan’s sequel The Conjuring 2, and on a quick side-note, she has an interesting history on her inclusion. It turns out that she was never part of the original script – or hell, even the original first cut of the film. But rather she was added in relatively last minute due to some underwhelming test screening scores. In the end, the character worked like gangbusters and now here we have The Nun.
Back to the theory at hand, there is the issue of the younger Farminga’s name in this new film. She’s credited as Sister Irene, which isn’t even close to Lorraine or Warren. But still, obviously, her last name wouldn’t be Warren if she hadn’t met her future husband Ed Warren yet (but I think a young Ed will cameo in this new film). And her first name could be Lorraine, she just goes by her maiden name “Irene.” Lorraine Warren’s actual maiden name wasn’t Irene but rather Moran so this doesn’t link up. But still. This theory is really only a stretch as we are really here debating whether or not Wan and Dauberman will break the true life angle with this new film.
Personally, I think they will. The series is really been moving more and more away from the actual events as it progresses. And if we learned anything from all the recent lawsuits hitting the franchise (and others such as Friday the 13th and The Grudge) then maybe they know the smart move would be to start distancing themselves from the real events and real people as much as possible. But Lorraine Warren may be easier to adapt. After all, she seemed to be mighty helpful to the production team of the first film and I can only imagine she gave Wan the blessing to bend and break the events to his sensibilities to make for the most frightening films he can (no pun intended) conjure.
Will this theory prove to be legit once The Nun opens? There’s only one way to find out. And I don’t know about you, but I plan to be there opening night just to see what’s what.
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The Nun is directed by Corin Hardy (The Hallow) from a script by James Wan and Gary Dauberman (Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation) and stars Demian Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Bonnie Aarons, Jonas Bloquet, Charlotte Hope, and Ingrid Bisu. It’s rated R for “terror, violence, and disturbing/bloody images” and hits September 7.
Synopsis:
A young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, with a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together they uncover the order’s unholy secret and confront a malevolent force in the form of the same demonic nun from “The Conjuring 2.”
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