Scarlett Johansson’s Star-Studded Exorcist Movie Just Got Its Biggest Update Yet

Right, if you thought The Exorcist franchise was dead and buried after The Exorcist: Believer limped into cinemas, think again. Scarlett Johansson’s now leading a seriously stacked cast in what’s shaping up to be a very different Exorcist film, and director Mike Flanagan’s just dropped a fairly big update for anyone keeping track.

Exorcising the Past: Flanagan Wraps Filming

Mike Flanagan – the bloke behind Doctor Sleep and Midnight Mass – has finished principal photography on his Exorcist reboot. Yep, cameras are down, cast presumably exhaling, and Flanagan’s marked the occasion by posting a purple cross over on Instagram. His caption:

'That’s a wrap. What an incredible experience. Forever grateful to this extraordinary cast and crew!'

Slightly more Oscar speech than exorcism, but there you go.

Shooting the Reboot

Filming started back in March, with Michael Fimognari running things as cinematographer. This is technically the seventh film in The Exorcist series — not that anyone’s keeping close count anymore.

Star Power: Who’s Involved?

• Scarlett Johansson takes the lead as a rookie detective – not, as you might have expected, a tormented priest or possessed child. She runs into 'unimaginable evil' during an investigation, which, in Exorcist terms, is probably only a slight exaggeration.
• Diane Lane, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Laurence Fishburne add proper gravitas. Ejiofor, for what it’s worth, plays a priest who was previously an ex-con. (Johansson’s also supposedly the mother of Jacobi Jupe’s character – that’s not been fully fleshed out yet, details-wise.)
• Sasha Calle, John Leguizamo, Hamish Linklater, and Carla Gugino also pop up, along with Flanagan regulars Kate Siegel and Samantha Sloyan. Rahul Kohli, Gil Bellows, Carl Lumbly, and Robert Longstreet round out what is, frankly, an overachieving ensemble.

Behind the Scenes Drama

Here’s where it gets juicy – in Hollywood terms, anyway. This film is a proper franchise reboot rather than the originally planned Exorcist: Deceiver. That film got tossed out after its predecessor, Believer, was met with a collective shrug. David Gordon Green was meant to stick around for Deceiver but left once it was clear audiences weren’t remotely interested in his vision (cheers to Variety for that background).

Flanagan, by contrast, apparently chased this project hard. While promoting his last film, The Life of Chuck, he told Esquire that he saw an opening to do something fresh with The Exorcist – specifically, he wasn’t keen on simply repackaging the series’ greatest hits.

Release Date and Production Team

Put this one in your calendar if you’re the organised type: Universal are putting this Exorcist out on 12 March 2027. That gives everyone plenty of time to debate whether we needed yet another Exorcist, I suppose.

The production effort’s not small either: Blumhouse Productions, Atomic Monster, Morgan Creek Entertainment, and Red Room Pictures are all chipping in.