WATCH: New ‘Candyman’ Trailer

By N. Jamiyla Chisholm Feb 28, 2020

The Black man who had a hook for a hand and dared skeptics to say his name, "Candyman," five times in a mirror, is making a return this summer with a plot twist. With producer Jordan Peele and filmmaker Nia DaCosta (“Little Woods”) at the helm, the reimagining of 1992’s “Candyman” (originally starring Tony Todd) will address the gentrification of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood, Deadline reported February 27. 

This June, when the remixed "Candyman” hits theaters, a new generation will follow painter Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend, Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), as they move into new luxury condos a decade after the infamous Cabrini-Green towers were demolished on the same spot. McCoy learns about the mythical monster—who in the original film was a formerly enslaved painter who had an affair with a White woman and lost his hand for it—and unwittingly brings Candyman back. 

“Gentrification is what helped us to reimagine the story because Cabrini-Green is gone,” DaCosta told Deadline. “The movie from the ’90s has a vision of Cabrini-Green where it’s sort of on its way to being knocked down.”

Watch the scary trailer above, courtesy of Universal Pictures.