Universal Spends $400 Million on New ‘Exorcist’ Trilogy

Back in 2018, filmmaker David Gordon Green reshaped the popular Halloween franchise as we know it. The film was a direct sequel to the beloved John Carpenter classic of the same name, rather than being a reboot. However, there was one catch – the film ignored the events of all the other Halloween films after the original.

For quite some time now, we’ve known that the Exorcist franchise was going to get the same treatment. Rather than continue the storyline of The Exorcist III, it will serve as a direct sequel to the original.

But today, we learned from Deadline that Universal Pictures will spend $400 million on a brand new trilogy of Exorcist films, with plans to release the last two films in the trilogy on NBC streaming platform Peacock. The first entry of the new trilogy is scheduled to be released in theaters through Universal Pictures on October 13, 2023. It’s also been confirmed that Ellen Burstyn will reprise her role as Chris MacNeil from the original 1973 film.

Speaking of Gordon Green, he will also direct all three installments in this new trilogy, which will be produced by Jason Blum of Blumhouse. Aside from the aforementioned casting of Burstyn, Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. has joined the cast in an undisclosed role.

For more updates on the new Exorcist trilogy, stay tuned to Awards Radar.