“Say my name” has never sounded quite so bone-chilling. The first trailer for producer Jordan Peele and director Nia DaCosta’s Candyman reboot/“spiritual sequel” is here, and it does for the Destiny’s Child classic what Us did for Luniz’s “I Got 5 on It.”
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This Candyman gives some timely updates to the 1992 horror classic, itself a groundbreaking piece of social commentary on race, class, gentrification, history, segregation, and more. Whereas the protagonist of the original was a white sociology grad student (Virginia Madsen) doing her thesis on how Cabrini-Green residents thought about the titular urban legend, the hero of the 2020 film is a Black artist (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) working on an project dedicated to the memory of the hook-brandishing ghost, an artist murdered for falling in love with a white woman, to be exhibited in the gentrified neighborhood where Cabrini-Green once stood. His mirror-filled exhibit invites gallery-goers to try and summon Candyman—an element of interactivity which, of course, doesn’t end well.
You’ll notice that the Candyman’s face is never shown in this trailer, and that’s by design. DaCosta and Peele have remained very coy about whether Tony Todd, who played the anti-hero in the 1992 film, will reprise his role.
“He’s iconic,” the director said at a press event, according to io9. “And I will say what we’ve done in this film is great…and I don’t want to give anything away.” We’ll find out when Candyman arrives in theaters June 12.
