The Conjuring franchise features sisters Vera Farmiga and Taissa Farmiga in major roles, albeit ones separated by decades. Vera played Lorraine Warren in multiple Conjuring movies, while Taissa played Sister Irene in The Nun movies. It felt only natural that the franchise would one day officially connect these characters, but beyond a brief visual tease in The Nun II that implied they were both descended from the same bloodline, they never did.

While speaking with THR, Micahel Chaves, who directed both The Nun II and The Conjuring: Last Rites, said they ultimately decided against including Sister Irene in the final (for now) Conjuring movie.

“That was as far as we could go with that storyline,” Chaves said. “We didn’t bring Irene into the fourth film, even though I love working with Taissa. I want to work with all the Farmigas eventually. But it just didn’t really work in the [Last Rites] storyline. The focus really was going to be Ed and Lorraine, and their relationship with their child, Judy. So the idea of bringing in this long lost relative in Sister Irene, and then also dealing with the difference of age, was too complex once you did the math. It would’ve become too big and too sprawling.“

There were rumours that an aged-up Taissa was going to appear in the Last Rites wedding sequence (which does feature several franchise cameos), but Chaves denied it. “I don’t know where that was shared from,” he said. “I did text Taissa to say, ‘You should show up at the wedding, just as a little glimpse, a cameo. We won’t worry about the [25-year] age gap or anything.’ But she was shooting something, and we couldn’t do that.“

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When does The Conjuring: Last Rites get a digital release? Very soon!

Although there was talk of turning Last Rites into an Avengers-style finale that would have included every demon the Warren’s had fought throughout the series, Chaves was glad they didn’t follow that path. “Going into the movie, one of the references that I kept on giving was Logan. I’ve always loved how Logan wasn’t this big, sprawling movie where every villain is unleashed on Wolverine,” he said. “It was actually the smallest, most intimate Wolverine story, and by being the most intimate Wolverine story, it’s such a beautiful final chapter because it’s big emotionally.“

He continued, “When we were making Last Rites, these fan-made trailers would show up online, and every demon that the Warrens have ever trapped is unleashed. It was as if Ghostbusters was being applied to the Conjuring. So I saw that and thought it was awesome, but I was like, ‘I’m so glad we’re not doing that version of the movie.’ There’d be a lot of busyness from going through the family tree of demons and Lorraine’s connections. And ultimately, it would be a very hollow experience.“

The Conjuring: Last Rites is now available on Digital, and will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on November 25.