EXCLUSIVE: Get your crucifix and be ready to recite a bunch of Hail Marys because New Line’s The Nun is coming back and screenwriter Akela Cooper has been tapped to write the script for the next installment of the series which will take us deeper into the hellishly sacred world of The Conjuring universe.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in “The Conjuring”

To date, the Conjuring universe has scared up $1.57 billion at the global box office. The Nun alone is the highest grossing film in the series earning more than $365 million worldwide so its no question that they would get back into the habit to frighten us all.

Cooper is no stranger to the thriller and horror genre. In addition to working on the Netflix Marvel series Luke Cage, she was a writer on the Lionsgate/CBS film Hell Fest and penned the screenplay for the upcoming A.I. doll thriller M3gan from Conjuring Godfather James Wan and Atomic Monster. In addition to Luke Cage, her TV credits include the wildly popular American Horror Story franchise and Netflix’s forthcoming series Jupitor’s Legacy.

Cooper’s involvement with The Nun moves the needle when it comes to adding more female voices behind the camera to the male-dominated genre of horror. She joins a growing list of recent female horror filmmakers that have been making waves including Jennifer Kent (The Babadook, The Nightingale), Julia Ducournau (Raw), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night), Alice Lowe (Prevenge) as well as up and comers like Vera Miao (Two Sentence Horror Stories).

The yet-to-be-titled sequel to The Nun will be produced by Wan’s Atomic Monster and Peter Safran’s The Safran Company. While you wait for The Nun sequel, New Line will keep your Conjure-verse tastebuds satisfied with the forthcoming Annabelle Comes Home, written and directed by Gary Dauberman. The next installment in the horror series is set to open in theaters on June 28.

Cooper is repped by ICM Partners and Rise Management, and her attorneys are Morris, Yorn, Barnes, Levine, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner & Gellman.