Halloween Ends director David Gordon Green thought he was done with horror until The Exorcist sequel trilogy came around

With Halloween Ends bringing the saga of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers to a close, director David Gordon Green expected that he would be taking a step back from the horror genre… but then Blumhouse Productions founder Jason Blum came calling with a sequel to The Exorcist.

“That’s the truth,” David Gordon Green said while speaking with THR. “If anybody’s followed my career, I’m always about left turns. Once I feel comfortable, I’ve got to get out of there and go do something that I don’t know and that is dangerous and vulnerable. That’s the stuff that really appeals to me. Fortunately, I’ve been able to exercise that through a lot of comedic work on television and some other things I’ve been able to do in between horror projects. But I really did have every intention of saying, ‘I’m going to push pause on horror,’ as much as I love the genre. It’s been good to me from a creative and financial standpoint, for sure, but it was just time to move on until the perfect property and the perfect idea happened at the same time.” The Exorcist sequel will actually be a whole new trilogy, with Ellen Burstyn returning to reprise her Academy-nominated role of Chris MacNeil. Leslie Odom Jr. also stars as the father of a possessed child who seeks out the aid of Burstyn’s character.

Earlier this week, David Gordon Green said that the first sequel in this new Exorcist trilogy would start production soon. Green added that the film would be “extraordinarily different” from Halloween. “We’re developing The Exorcist, and Ellen Burstyn, along with an amazing cast, is coming together for that, with a script I’m really excited about,” Green said. “Technically, it’s an extraordinarily different film from Halloween. I guess it’s in the subgenre of horror, but dramatically, I’m approaching it very academically. So we’ll see. It’s bringing a lot of the same team together in terms of our makeup and effects team and our cinematographer, but at the same time, we’re bringing in a new group as well to complement and evolve in different ways and to make sure it doesn’t feel redundant or repetitive.” What do you hope to see in The Exorcist sequel trilogy?

Halloween Ends is now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock. You can check out a review from our own JimmyO right here, but make sure to let us know what you thought of the film as well!