‘The Exorcist: Martyrs’ Trailer Radically Reboots Franchise With Scarlett Johansson
Three years after The Exorcist franchise spectacularly fell apart for Universal, the iconic horror property is set to return under writer-director Mike Flanagan with a new film starring Scarlett Johansson.
Below is the first teaser trailer for The Exorcist: Martyrs, which is described as “a radical new vision of the most terrifying title in the history of cinematic horror.” In the film, Johansson stars as NYPD homicide detective Julie Miller, who investigates a murderer called Father Sunday (John Leguizamo), a priest (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and a new slew of killings that threaten Miller’s 12-year-old son (Jacobi Jupe).
Flanagan is the prolific horror writer-director who has tackled several Stephen King tales (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, Carrie) and delivered several limited series hits for Netflix (Midnight Mass, The Fall of the House of Usher).
The film represents Universal trying to break the franchise’s box office curse.
In 2021, the studio paid a whopping $400 million for the rights to the franchise — which was launched with William Friedkin’s 1973 blockbuster — as part of a deal that included the budgets for a planned trio of feature films. The idea was to try to echo the playbook of David Gordon Green’s hit revival of Halloween. But Green’s 2023 film, The Exorcist: Believer, which returned original star Ellen Burstyn to the franchise, only made $137 million globally amid poor reviews. The announced second film in the trilogy, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was scrapped in 2024.
Then Universal turned to Flanagan to, in effect, reboot the reboot.
The Exorcist: Martyrs will be released in theaters March 12, 2027.
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