New Trailer For Candyman Gives A New Origin Story

Universal Pictures has released a new trailer for the upcoming Candyman reboot/sequel and it features what appears to be a new origin story. The film is seemingly a sequel given the involvement of Vanessa Williams as Anne-Marie McCoy. Tony Todd is also rumored to be involved in some form, although whether or not he is Candyman remains to be seen. The origin story changing may be because of the original story’s commentary on urban legends, which often change over the years after multiple retellings.

The film was directed by Nia DaCosta from a script she wrote with Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, based on the story ‘The Forbidden’ by Clive Barker. It stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and Colman Domingo.

Here’s a synopsis: For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright, move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.

With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.

The film was rated R for “bloody horror violence, and language including some sexual references”. It arrives in theaters on August 27.