The Exorcist: Believer featurette says the filmmakers wanted to honor the original film

Universal Pictures is going so hard with their marketing of the October 6th release of director David Gordon Green and Blumhouse Productions‘ The Exorcist: Believer, it almost seems like the saying “another day, another Exorcist promo” would be fitting. It makes sense, since Universal and Peacock forked over an amount somewhere in the range of $400 million to acquire the rights to distribute a new trilogy of Exorcist sequels that begins with Believer. Today they’ve unveiled a featurette that’s called “Legacy” and looks to let us know that the filmmakers were seeking to honor the 1973 classic The Exorcist with this new sequel. You can check it out in the embed above.

Green previously directed the recent trilogy of Halloween sequels. He crafted the story for The Exorcist: Believer with Danny McBride (who wrote all three of the new Halloweens with him) and their Halloween Kills co-writer Scott Teems, then wrote the screenplay with Peter Sattler (Broken Diamonds). Here’s the synopsis: Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding has raised their daughter on his own. But when Angela and her friend Katherine, disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.

Ellen Burstyn reprises the role of Chris MacNeil, the character she played in the 1973 classic The Exorcist, “an actress who has been forever altered by what happened to her daughter Regan five decades before.” An interview with Burstyn is included in the new featurette. She is joined in the cast by Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) as Victor, Lidya Jewett (Nightbooks) as Angela, and newcomer Olivia O’Neill as Angela’s friend Katherine. Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale) plays Victor and Angela’s neighbor, and Jennifer Nettles (The Righteous Gemstones) and Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon) play Katherine’s parents. Original The Exorcist star Linda Blair is in there as well, reprising the role of Chris MacNeil’s daughter Regan.

Okwui Okpokwasili (Master) is also in the cast as Doctor Beehibe, and Raphael Sbarge (Carnosaur) plays a pastor.

The Exorcist: Believer is being produced by Jason Blum, David Robinson, and James Robinson. Green, Danny McBride, Stephanie Allain, and Couper Samuelson serve as executive producers. Ryan Turek is overseeing the project for Blumhouse.

Universal has already announced a release date for the second entry in this trilogy. The Exorcist: Deceiver will be reaching theatres on April 18, 2025.

What did you think of the new Exorcist: Believer featurette? Will you be seeing this movie on the big screen next week? Let us know by leaving a comment below.