The first trailer for the upcoming Candyman 2020, the sequel to the 1992 horror classic, was released today.
The latest film in the Candyman series, by Oscar-winning producer Jordan Peele, is directed by Nia DaCosta.
Candyman 2020 follows Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who was an infant kidnapped by Candyman in the 1992 original. But he is now grown up and works as a visual artist.
McCoy takes an interest in the Candyman legend as part of an ongoing project to shore up his career. The trailer shows him apparently testing the legend by daring people to say Candyman five times while looking into a mirror.
In the trailer, a group of girls stand in front of a mirror in a restroom and say Candyman five times. At first, nothing happens, but mayhem soon breaks out. In that scene and subsequent ones, we see the familiar harbingers of Candymans’s deadly presence, including the hook, bees, and blood, as Destiny Child’s Say My Name plays.
The Candyman urban legend
According to the Candyman urban legend from the 1992 movie, if you say the name Candyman five times while looking into the mirror, Candyman will appear and kill you.
The original 1992 movie, directed by Bernard Rose, was based on Clive Barker’s The Forbidden, which tells the story of a Chicago graduate student, Helen Lyle, researching the urban legend of Candyman.
Candyman is the ghost of an artist and the son of a slave. He was lynched by a white mob for getting romantically involved with and fathering a child with a white woman.
The Candyman haunted residents of the poor, crime-ridden Cabrini-Green housing project in Chicago for many years. Lyle’s investigation uncovered multiple cases of people who died in the neighborhood in suspicious circumstances.
In the upcoming Candyman sequel, the artist McCoy lives in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood, but things have changed a lot since the original movie. The neighborhood has since been gentrified and McCoy lives with his girlfriend, Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), in a luxury condo in the neighborhood.
@JimViscardi Prepare to be hooked. The first trailer for #Candyman drops Thursday. pic.twitter.com/s0rFIijnMW
— Candyman (@CandymanMovie) February 25, 2020
Tony Todd returning for role in new Candyman film
It’s unknown if original Candyman actor Tony Todd will reprise his role as the title villain, but he is amongst the cast members credited in the upcoming movie. The trailer still kept it a mystery as to what Todd’s involvement will be.
In addition to Todd, Vanessa A. Williams (Days of Our Lives) will also return as Anne-Marie McCoy.
Teyonah Parris plays McCoy’s girlfriend Brianna Cartwright.
Other cast members include Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Troy Cartwright, Colman Domingo as William Burke, Kyle Kaminsky as Grady Smith, Rebecca Spence as Finley Stephens, Carl Clemons-Hopkins as Jameson, and Cassie Kramer as Helen Lyle.
Candyman will be in theaters on June 12, 2020.