One of the biggest directors in horror, and among the most respected, Mike Flanagan always seemed like a good pick to get the Exorcist series back on track. But why Hollywood keeps trying never made much sense. (Well, outside of Universal needing to recoup some of its massive investment.) Like, it’s never worked. Why are we forcing it to? Well, we think we finally have a reason: Laurence Fishburne saying, “The power of Christ compels you.” Per Variety, Fishburne is joining Flanagan’s upcoming reboot, alongside Scarlett Johansson, Jacobi Jupe, Diane Lane, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. To be clear, Fishburne hasn’t officially been cast as an exorcist, but we pray Flanagan wouldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Hollywood has never had much luck conjuring a successful Exorcist sequel. Nevertheless, there have been numerous gonzo attempts to capitalize on the success of William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning blockbuster and William Peter Blatty’s bestseller. Blatty even took a stab at it with The Exorcist III after John Boorman’s Exorcist II: The Heretic left audiences scratching their heads. Both have since amassed cult followings, which is more than we can say for Renny Harlin and Paul Schrader’s dueling Exorcist prequels, Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist. The two prequels are indicative of the kinds of struggles involved in building out the Exorcist universe. Schrader was fired from the production of Dominion, so Morgan Creek hired Harlin to rewrite and reshoot the movie as The Beginning, which bombed at the box office. Months later, Warner Bros. released Schrader’s version anyway, and it bombed as well. Roughly two decades later, after Universal paid a staggering $400 million for the franchise rights, The Exorcist: Believer, the start of a new trilogy of Exorcist movies directed by David Gordon Green and starring Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair, cratered and left the studio scrambling to fast-track a do-over.
No one needs another Exorcist. Audiences don’t appear to be hungering for another demonically possessed child vomiting split-pea soup anymore than they’re hungering for another Vespa ride with The Pope’s Exorcist. But if we can get a scene of Fishburne, in the commanding baritone of Morpheus, reading the “Rites of Exorcism,” the efforts of generations of filmmakers will finally be rewarded.
The Exorcist, which is not a sequel to Believer, is expected to be released in theaters in March 2027.
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