New Exorcist trilogy will be “fresh, new,” and “really, really scary”

Following in the vomit-covered footsteps of The Exorcist is no mean feat, but Universal Pictures, NBCU’s Peacock, and Blumhouse Productions will do just that with their new Exorcist trilogy. Set to be directed by Halloween‘s David Gordon Green, the film will serve as a direct sequel to the original film and also feature Ellen Burstyn reprising her Academy-nominated role of Chris MacNeil.

In an interview with CinePop, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum teased that he hopes that they’ll be able to do the same thing with The Exorcist as they did with Halloween.

What I hope to do with ‘The Exorcist’ is the same thing we did with ‘Halloween. The first movie was great, and the second movie was okay, and the rest of them were not very good. And then we came in and kind of re-jiggered it, and people liked it, so I hope we can do the same thing with ‘The Exorcist.’ Everyone thinks we’re gonna fall on our face, but I think, we have the same filmmaker, the same writer, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride. And I think we’ll reinvent ‘The Exorcist’ so that it’ll feel fresh, new, different, but, you know, related to the first movie, but also really, really scary.”

The new Exorcist trilogy will star Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) as the father of a possessed child who seeks out the aid of Chris MacNeil (Burstyn), who certainly knows a thing or two about dealing with levitating, pea-soup vomiting, and expletive hurling children. Speaking of possessed children, it doesn’t appear as though Linda Blair will be reprising her role of Regan MacNeil, at least not at the moment. Shortly after the announcement, Blair said that although she hasn’t had any discussions about returning for the new Exorcist trilogy, she was aware of the project as the producers had reached out before the announcement to let her know.

The first installment of this new Exorcist trilogy will be released on October 13, 2023.