Jordan Peele’s Candyman sequel will include Tony Todd!

Even though its more than a year away, Jordan Peele’s upcoming “spiritual sequel” to the 1992 horror classic Candyman has generated a lot of headlines. While some wondered what direction the mind behind Get Out, Us, and the new Twilight Zone will take the story, Tony Todd, who starred in the original film and its subsequent sequels, hadn’t been approached about appearing.

That all changed this week when Todd disclosed some surprising news at Nickel City Con in New York, per CinemaBlend.

“Out of the blue, I got a phone call from Jordan Peele. We’re still waiting for the contract, but the way he explained it to me was that it’s gonna be applause-worthy moments. That’s his words. No matter what happens with that, it’s gonna just put renewed attention on the original.”

Rising filmmaker Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) will direct Candyman from a screenplay by Peele and Win Rosenfeld. The film returns to the neighborhood where the legend began, the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood.

MGM will produce and finance Candyman with Universal handling domestic theatrical distribution. Adam Rosenberg, MGM’s Co-President of Production and Tabitha Shick, MGM’s Vice President of Production will oversee the project on behalf of the studio and Ian Cooper will produce for Monkeypaw.

Production is expected to begin this spring. Universal Pictures will release Candyman theatrically in the U.S. on June 12, 2020.