In a world full of legacy sequels and reboots, it was only a matter of time before William Friedkin’s Academy Award-nominated The Exorcist would be continued in the 2020s. David Gordon Green, the filmmaker behind successful stoner comedies like Pineapple Express and Your Highness, found moderate success with this legacy sequel idea in the Halloween franchise, continuing the 1978 story 40 years later in 2018.
While Halloween (2018) started strong, as the trilogy went on, critics and audiences alike were less-than-thrilled with Halloween Kills, and overall, downright hated Halloween Ends. It was after the release of the third film that it was confirmed that David Gordon Green would be taking this legacy process to another beloved horror franchise with The Exorcist: Believer, which was released in October 2023.
The Exorcist: Believer was mostly seen as a lifeless cash-grab sequel (and almost a re-telling) to the original film, receiving poor reviews across the board (22% critics’ score and 59% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes), and only posting $136 million against the massive $400 cost for the franchise rights, not to mention another $30 million for the film.
Afterward, there wasn’t much noise from Gordon Green’s camp, considering he had been tabbed to tackle two more films in the new trilogy from Universal.
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It seems that as of now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, David Gordon Green has made the decision to exit The Exorcist franchise and will no longer be involved with the film’s next sequel, The Exorcist: Deceiver, which was originally slated to release in theaters on April 18th, 2025. Gordon Green will instead focus on the upcoming season four of The Righteous Gemstones, and get back into the comedy world.
While Universal has no plans to scrap the trilogy project entirely due to it being a massive financial investment, the company has removed The Exorcist: Deceiver from their release schedule while they search for a new director and most likely, a new story direction for the beloved franchise.
Keep checking back for more info on The Exorcist: Deceiver as it’s released.
