Before he directed the 2013 hit The Conjuring, filmmaker James Wan had plenty of experience with the horror genre having helmed films like Saw, Insidious, and Dead Silence. With The Conjuring, however, he really hit his stride as a director, bringing together all of the best qualities of the genre to craft a chilling, dramatic, and impactful supernatural horror film based on the experiences of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The movie was a massive summer hit, pleasing audiences and critics alike and grossing nearly $320 million at the worldwide box office. That's a massive number for a horror film, and based on this success Warner Bros. immediately began developing a sequel.

But given the success of The Conjuring and, specifically, Wan’s talent behind the camera, the question of what the director would do next loomed large. As luck would have it, he had a date with a franchise of a different sort, as he was enlisted to try his hand at the action genre with the massive Furious 7.

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Image via Warner Bros.

It was a long, difficult production to get through, but Wan came out on the other side intact and early reviews for the Fast & Furious sequel are highly positive (read Perri's take here). But with Furious 7 under his belt, Wan is returning to the genre on which he cut his teeth, coming back to take the helm of The Conjuring 2.

Steve recently got the opportunity to speak with Wan at the press junket for Furious 7, and during the course of their conversation the filmmaker talked a bit about his excitement for the horror sequel:

“I’ve been working very heavily on the script, and the idea of continuing the saga of Ed and Lorraine Warren is actually very exciting. So the idea of going back to kind of nurture my baby that I created is part of the reason why I’m going back to do The Conjuring 2. And in some ways it’ll be like a holiday break for me after this film.”

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Image via Warner Bros.

Wan said that production will begin later this year, in anticipation of the film’s June 10, 2016 release date. But while Wan’s immediate attention will be turned to Conjuring, he admits he’s also thinking about another project on the scale of Furious 7:

“While I do Conjuring 2 my plan would be to start setting up and finding that next big film that I want to jump into.”

Steve pointed out that Warner Bros. is a studio that likes to take care of its filmmakers, and since Wan hit it off so well with The Conjuring, Steve addressed the possibility that WB may want to keep Wan in the fold to take the helm of one of their DC Comics Universe films:

“Yeah it’s weird. Continuing that family tradition, [Warner Bros. is] like that and it’s almost like they’re very old school in that respect, which you don’t see much of anymore.”

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Image via Warner Bros.

More directly, Steve asked Wan if there’s a specific DC property that he would be interested in adapting:

“Yeah, there are some that I like… I am open to all possibilities at this point.”

While Wan seems to be pretty tight-lipped about whether he’s had conversations about directing a superhero movie for Warner Bros., the filmmaker is undoubtedly fielding offers from a number of different studios for big projects in the wake of both The Conjuring and Furious 7’s success. It’ll be interesting to see where he lands after The Conjuring 2.

Watch the portion of Steve’s interview with Wan concerning DC Comics movies and The Conjuring 2 below, and look for the full interview on Collider soon:

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Poster via Universal Pictures