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Will There Be a Sequel to The Exorcist: Believer? What's Next For Iconic Horror Franchise
The Exorcist: Believer is now playing in theaters everywhere.
With The Exorcist: Believer now playing on the big screen (click here for tickets), it's time to start thinking about the franchise's future. What? You thought the series would just go back into a state of dormancy after one new movie? You thought wrong!
The almost too-terrifying demonic thrills and chills that profoundly altered the horror landscape half a century ago are here to stay for the next few years — at least. It's gonna take more than a vial of holy water and some rosary beads to banish The Exorcist IP back to the fiery depths of Hell. The pea soup floodgates are open for business!
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"Demonic possession is a way that people can explore ideas of more relatable types of possession: internal struggles that we all have," director, co-writer, and executive producer David Gordon Green states in the studio production notes. "It’s a sub-genre of horror that I’m drawn to because it explores those questions of, ‘Who am I? Who’s within me? Are there things within me that my community might see as questionable? And, if so, can they pull something out of me through relationships, love, intervention?’ All of these ideas I find really intriguing."
Will there be a sequel to The Exorcist: Believer?
While most studio projects need to prove their box office chops before sequel discussions can begin, Green's take on The Exorcist proved to be a rare exception to the rule, with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse green-lighting an entire trilogy right off the bat. You rarely see that kind of confidence from a major studio in Hollywood, but then again, it's not every day you're tapping into one of the most influential horror franchises of all time.
The sequel to Believer — officially titled The Exorcist: Deceiver — is tentatively scheduled for a wide theatrical release on April 18, 2025. A title and release date for the third installment have yet to be announced.
What is The Exorcist: Believer about?
Taking place 50 years after the original movie — while simultaneously ignoring all the cumbersome baggage of those pesky sequels and prequels — Believer ups The Exorcist ante with two possessed girls: Angela (Good Girls' Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (newcomer Olivia O'Neill).
When the best friends go missing after school one day, a feverish search is mounted by their parents and the local authorities. Everyone heaves a sigh of relief once the girls emerge from the woods three days later, strangely believing they were only gone for a handful of hours. The parents' relief is short-lived, however, once Angela and Lidya begin to show signs of synchronized possession that medical science cannot properly explain.
RELATED: How to Get Tickets For The Exorcist: Believer, Plus IMAX Details
Left with no other option, Angela's father — widower Victor Fielding (Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr.) — seeks out the only person who knows what it's like to lose a child to the influence of pure evil: Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn, playing the character for the first time since 1973).
"It’s a terrifying thought that you can be taken over by a force that’s inside,” Burstyn states in the production notes. "It’s one thing to be taken over by somebody coming into your room, kidnapping you. But the idea of a force being able to get possession of you and you can’t control it? I don’t think there’s anything more terrifying."
Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale) co-stars as Ann, the Fieldings' nosy neighbor and a local nurse, who once harbored dreams of becoming a nun. Jennifer Nettles (The Righteous Gemstones) and Norbert Leo (Bloodline), meanwhile, round out the ensemble as Katherine's fiercely religious parents: Miranda and Tony.
Get a glimpse at The Exorcist: Believer with sneak peek clip, new featurettes
How to get tickets to The Exorcist: Believer
The Exorcist: Believer is now playing in theaters everywhere. Click here to compel your local theater to reserve some seats.
Craving more demonic thrills? Head over to Peacock for The Exorcist III (1990), Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), and The Last Exorcism (2010).
