Described as a “spiritual sequel” to Bernard Rose’s Candyman (itself an adaptation of a Clive Barker tale), Nia DaCosta‘s Candyman is coming to theaters on August 27, 2021.

After being delayed last year due to the pandemic, the marketing campaign is back in full swing this week, and today brings a brand new trailer that’s loaded with new footage.

From Universal Pictures, this new trailer is over 2-minutes long, beginning with the familiar sounds of Philip Glass’s iconic theme. From there we head back to Cabrini Green for a whole new mythology for the titular Candyman, explaining that the original Candyman was an innocent Black man killed by the cops. But Candyman isn’t just one man this time.

Rather, “Candyman is the whole damn hive.”

The suggestion there is that Tony Todd‘s Candyman was just one of the many “Candyman” beings that have been created over the years, a brilliant new addition to the mythology that should allow for the franchise to be given new life while still honoring the past. Todd’s Candyman doesn’t appear in this trailer, but there’s a good chance we’ll see him again.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman) stars in the new movie as Anthony McCoy (that name should sound familiar to fans of the original classic, we’ll say that much), who investigates the legend of Candyman and seems to find himself becoming the latest central figure in the mythology. This trailer is once again teasing body-horror elements, with Anthony potentially *becoming* the latest Candyman. And that’s when things start to get real bloody…

Allow the new trailer to re-introduce you to the Candyman below.

Candyman comes from producer Jordan Peele, who co-wrote the film with Win Rosenfeld.

“For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.”

“With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer (Colman Domingo) exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.”