'The Conjuring: Last Rites' co-stars explain what they learned from Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson

The Conjuring: Last Rites, the ninth entry of the universe, is almost here, and we're getting some new insight on how the film found its young Ed and Lorraine Warren for the opening sequence. 

Originally, director Michael Chaves was planning to de-age Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, but he was starting to have doubts. "Out of the blue, Vera gives me a call and, almost like she's a psychic herself, she's just like, 'You know what? I have a feeling on this. I think you should cast it.' At first, it was this weird feeling that is confirming my fears, but it is also a tremendous monkey wrench in the whole thing," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I convinced the producers, everyone's in agreement, and when you get everyone in agreement, it is now very hard to change course."

Madison Lawlor and Orion Smith ended up getting cast, having individual conversations with the franchise veterans to make sure they honored and portrayed the characters properly. 

Farmiga personally showed Lawlor how to properly handle Lorraine's rosemary beads. "It's sort of like getting ready to go boxing," Lawlor expressed. "I could still do it right now 'cause I had to do it over and over and over again so that I could do it without looking at my hand."

As for Smith and Wilson, they "sat down, read every line, went beat by beat and talked about the character and where he is now, his past, the relationship between the historical Ed and the Conjuring Ed and how they interweave between each other."