Jordan Peele and his cohorts are doing everything they can to add some mystery to the upcoming Candyman “spiritual sequel,” and that includes implying that Tony Todd may be reprising one of his most iconic roles.
Aquaman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has been cast in the film, and initial reports claimed that he would be replacing Tony Todd as the movie’s titular villain. But director Nia DaCosta has now said that’s not the case, while still being pretty coy about just what is going on with the movie’s casting. “Well, it’s been slightly misreported. I can’t say what’s happening in the film because we want it to be a surprise, but he’s not replacing Tony Todd. That’s been reported, and I was just like, ‘I don’t know what to say about this. This is not right,'” DaCosta told Collider.
So what does that mean, exactly? With DaCosta saying the casting was slightly misreported, perhaps that means Abdul-Mateen will be portraying a new version of the Candyman, and therefore will not technically be replacing Todd’s character. That’s kind of splitting hairs over semantics, though, so maybe Todd really is coming back and they want to keep it a secret, because if there’s one thing Jordan Peele has shown us he likes to do in his films, it’s surprise viewers with unexpected choices.
Whatever is going on with Candyman and Tony Todd, we get the feeling we won’t know the whole story until the film premieres on June 12, 2020.
