The Nun's Taissa Farmiga on Sister Irene's Conjuring Connection

When ComingSoon.net attended The Nun junket in Mexico City we got to delve into what is sure to be one of the most talked about theories from the movie and how it relates to the wider Conjuring Universe. In the film Taissa Farmiga plays a character named Sister Irene, a young novitiate (nun-in-training), but we wanted to ask her if her character shares a connection with Lorraine Warren, played by her real-life older sister Vera Farmiga. The answer may surprise you! SPOILERS BEWARE!

The connection between Irene and Lorraine goes beyond the mere fact that the two actresses are siblings. Over the course of the film it is revealed that Sister Irene has a psychic gift to connect to the supernatural very similar to the gift Lorraine possesses, which she refers to as “visions.” Like Lorraine she is a devout Catholic. The film also portrays Irene as being in her late-teens/early twenties in 1952, which would make her around Lorraine’s age in the 1971-set The Conjuring. The Nun actually ends with the seminar from the first Conjuring in which footage is shown of The Warrens exorcising a farmer, who is revealed to be the character of Maurice “Frenchie” Theriault (Jonas Bloquet) from The Nun! Is Irene actually Lorraine? Is Irene Lorraine’s sister? Her long-lost twin? What was Lorraine’s connection to Frenchie?

“I think it could be fun,” Farmiga told us during our interview about a possible connection between the two. “I think that we should see what the writers come up with. I feel like if they do it they’ll find a fun, interesting way to make it happen and it won’t be too obvious. That’s what I hope. Maybe my expectations are too high? (laughs) I think it’s gonna be great, we’ll see. No promises, I can’t promise!”

“Let’s see how things go in the future, maybe that could be taken advantage of,” director Corin Hardy teased. “I cast Taissa not because of her sister but because she was the best actress for it. So if it hadn’t been her it would be more difficult to have that connection, but we also didn’t want to mess with the connection the ‘Conjuring’ movies have to the real Warrens.”

Hardy also said that between him and the Conjuring Universe braintrust a lot of thought was put into how The Nun connected to the other films in the mythology.

“You could tell by the script where things fit in, and then we would also be double-checking in our brains, particularly with what occurs with Frenchie,” Hardy explained. “If you watch carefully and listen carefully you’ll see how things come together.”

Do you think there is a connection between Sister Irene and Lorraine Warren? Let us know why or why not in the comments below!

When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together they uncover the order’s unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of the same demonic nun that first terrorized audiences in The Conjuring 2, as the abbey becomes a horrific battleground between the living and the damned.

The Nun stars Oscar-nominated Demian Bichir (A Better Life) as Father Burke, Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story) as Sister Irene, Jonas Bloquet (Elle) as local villager Frenchie, Charlotte Hope (Game of Thrones) as the abbey’s Sister Victoria, Ingrid Bisu (Toni Erdmann) as Sister Oana, and Bonnie Aarons, reprising her Conjuring 2 role as the title character.

Filmmaker James Wan, director of the record-setting horror hits The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2, explores another dark corner of that universe with The Nun. Directed by Corin Hardy (The Hallow), the new fright-fest is produced by Wan and by Peter Safran, who has produced all the films in The Conjuring franchise.

The Nun is now playing in theaters everywhere!