The Conjuring Universe has been a scare-filled franchise horror fans can rely on for spine-chilling narratives, frequently anchored in fact, for nearly a decade. With Ed and Lorraine Warren returning for The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It, the third installment is a return to form. With the film's recent release, we've found that there was a miscommunication with one of the franchise's earlier films.

The Curse of La Llorona, which will be released in 2019, does not appear to be a part of The Conjuring Universe. That's a strange turn of events given that the film has a familiar face from the trilogy, Tony Amendola's Father Perez from Annabelle and The Nun, as well as a flashback featuring the Annabelle doll. Michael Chaves, the director of La Llorona and The Conjuring 3, recently stated why: “[La Llorona] isn’t [part of The Conjuring Universe is because] it was made without one of the [Conjuring franchise] producers, so technically it can not be fully embraced. That’s the very simple reason. Originally, there was only supposed to be a playful nod [to The Conjuring franchise in La Llorona], by putting The Father in and having the Annabelle flash. But it wasn’t supposed to be marketed that way. The plan was, you would get into it, and then it’s like, ‘Oh my God, they’re connected!’ We weren’t, from the beginning, supposed to be doing that. And that’s why it has this outsider status. But as [the character] La Llorona is an outsider herself, I think it fits.”