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Summary
- The Exorcist: Believer is a highly anticipated direct sequel to the original classic, set to release in 2023 and featuring Ellen Burstyn's return.
- The first trailer for The Exorcist: Believer has generated buzz, with viewers finding it terrifying and indicating potential success for the new trilogy.
- The Exorcist: Believer is part of a brand-new trilogy, with the sequel The Exorcist: Deceiver already scheduled for release in 2025.
Blumhouse Productions is prepping The Exorcist: Believer, a direct sequel to the original 1973 horror classic The Exorcist, and all the news surrounding the new 2023 Exorcist movie suggests a strong reboot for the franchise. There's no real debate that The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin, is one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It's one of only six horror movies nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and it's also one of the scariest ever made, even more so if the viewer is a Christian. Audiences of all backgrounds tend to love The Exorcist though, which holds up extremely well nearly 50 years after its release. Now, in 2023, the long-awaited official successor to The Exorcist, titled The Exorcist: Believer, is officially on the way.
The Exorcist: Believer isn't the first movie to step up to become the second "proper" Exorcist movie though. The Exorcist's massive popularity ensured Hollywood would try to make it a franchise, even back in the 1970s. In the eyes of many the only successful Exorcist project since 1990 is the short-lived FOX TV show — but even this failed to live up to the original. That may all be about to change, as Blumhouse Productions and director David Gordon Green are looking to give The Exorcist the same revitalizing treatment they gave Halloween in 2018. They're prepping not a franchise reboot, but a direct sequel to Friedkin's original, and what's been revealed about The Exorcist: Believer so far points towards the 2023 movie being a return to form for The Exorcist.
The Latest The Exorcist: Believer News
The latest The Exorcist reboot news sees a brief but wise release date shift. Despite being a continuation of one of the most terrifying horror movies ever made, Taylor Swift managed to scare The Exorcist: Believer out of its original release date. The horror sequel was initially set to be released on Friday, October 13. However, Swift recently announced a surprise concert movie following her hugely popular "Eras" tour that would be released on the same day. To avoid the intimidating competition, The Exorcist: Believe has changed its release date to one week earlier on October 6.
There is something amusing about and dark and disturbing horror movie fleeing a pop star, with the news being enough for Jason Blum to personally address it on Twitter by sharing the news alongside a Swift reference saying "Look what you made me do." While that ruins the plans to have The Exorcist: Believer released on the seemingly perfect Friday the 13th date, the Swift concert movie crashed AMC websites almost immediately, seemingly confirming that The Exorcist: Believe was better off avoiding it.
The Exorcist: Believer Release Date
Blumhouse and David Gordon Green's The Exorcist: Believer will be released in theaters on October 6, 2023, just in time for Halloween. It's not known yet when the 2023 Exorcist movie will be available to stream, but it will be on Peacock when it arrives. The new The Exorcist movie was initially confirmed in August 2020, with filming wrapped by March 2023. The Exorcist: Believer release date is also almost exactly a year after Halloween Ends debuted in 2022, keeping up Blumhouse and Green's run of releasing new horror franchise entries right before the spooky holiday.
The Exorcist: Believer Cast
There have been several confirmations The Exorcist: Believer cast, including that Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist) will be reprising her role as Regan's mother, Chris McNeil. Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) has been cast in a main role, playing a man who seeks Chris MacNeil's help because his own child is possessed. Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale) has also been added to The Exorcist 2 cast as a nurse who cares for the two possessed children. Child actresses Lidya Jewett (Good Girls) and Olivia Marcum (Matilda the Musical) will play the two possessed girls, .
Other The Exorcist: Believer cast members have been revealed over time, although besides character names there's little known about who they're playing. Jennifer Nettles (The Righteous Gemstones) and Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon) are playing concerned parents of one of the possessed girls. Raphael Sbarge (Risky Business) will play a pastor, and E.J. Bonilla (The Long Road Home) as Father Maddox. Rory Gross (Tulsa King) will be playing a character named Tyler. Linda Boston (The Oval) will be playing a school principal, while Nigel Barto (First Wives Club) and Amanda Beth (The Light) have been cast as nurses. Finally, Nick Benas (The Righteous Gemstones) has been cast as a neighbor, presumably, Leslie Odom Jr.'s neighbor
The most notable new Exorcist movie updates when it comes to the cast is the return of Linda Blair in The Exorcist: Believer. The horror sequel wouldn't be a legacy sequel without a returning character, and Blair is that connective tissue that The Exorcist: Believer needs. In the original 1973 The Exorcist, Blair played Regan MacNeil, the young daughter who became possessed. It isn't clear in what kind of capacity Blair will be in the movie, whether it'll be a simple cameo or a major role, though she reportedly worked for several days on the film.
The Exorcist: Believer Story Details
Some The Exorcist: Believer updates have shed some light on the upcoming horror film's story details. The 2023 The Exorcist sequel will star Leslie Odom Jr. as the father of a child possessed by a demon, who in his desperate search for salvation, goes to Chris MacNeil (original Exorcist star Ellen Burstyn) for help. What Chris discovers is that Victor's daughter Angela and her friend Katherine are possessed by a demonic entity she's all too familiar with. There has been a full plot synopsis for The Exorcist: Believer released by Blumhouse (via YouTube), which explains everything audiences need to know about the story details for the 2023 The Exorcist movie:
Exactly 50 years ago this fall, the most terrifying horror film in history landed on screens, shocking audiences around the world. Now, on Friday, October 6, a new chapter begins. From Blumhouse and director David Gordon Green, who shattered the status quo with their resurrection of the Halloween franchise, comes The Exorcist: Believer.
Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar® nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; One Night in Miami, Hamilton) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) on his own.
But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia Marcum), 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.
The Exorcist: Believer Trailer
The first The Exorcist reboot trailer has arrived, offering audiences their first look at what to expect from the terrifying return to what's arguably the most successful (and most terrifying) demonic possession movie franchise. The Exorcist: Believer trailer begins by introducing the new characters, focusing mostly on Leslie Odom Jr. as a father whose young daughter and her friend go missing only to show up three days later with no memories of what happened. But the relief soon turns to terror as the girls begin exhibiting terrifying behavior.
The trailer for the new Exorcist movie gradually builds toward the exciting reveal that this is indeed a sequel to The Exorcist audiences are familiar with, rather than a restart of the story, with subtle notes of the iconic score being played before the name Regan is finally invoked and Ellen Burstyn's Chris MacNeil is reintroduced. She is asked to help due to her experience with exorcisms. However, it soon becomes clear that this demon is the same one that possessed her daughter decades ago. It is a chilling trailer that helps to establish The Exorcist: Believer as its own story that will also pay homage to the original.
Blumhouse's New Exorcist Trilogy Explained
The best part of this whole thing for fans, assuming the new Exorcist 2 turns out well, is that it's set to be only the beginning of a brand-new trilogy of films. The new Exorcist trilogy, Starting with The Exorcist: Believer, is the result of a $400 million blockbuster deal involving Blumhouse, distributor Universal Pictures, and rights holder Morgan Creek. It's already been confirmed that the next movie, titled The Exorcist: Deceiver, is in development. However, Exorcist 3 and 4 may end up skipping theaters and debuting on Peacock.