The Exorcist Sequel Rumored to Have Halloween's David Gordon Green in Talks to Direct

Earlier this year, reports claimed that a reboot of The Exorcist was being developed, though a recent report from Observer claims that director of 2018's Halloween David Gordon Green is in talks to direct a sequel for the franchise. The report notes that the new sequel would be produced by Blumhouse Productions and Morgan Creek, and with Morgan Creek previously being the ones developing the reboot, it would seem as though the upcoming project will follow in similar footsteps to Halloween, with the new project set to revive the franchise and embrace elements of the source material without being a direct reboot.

The original story focuses on a girl who begins to exhibit bizarre behavior that traditional science fails to explain. A local priest intervenes and conducts an exorcism in hopes of ridding the girl's body of a nefarious being. The film ends with the priest becoming possessed by the demon before launching himself out of the girl's bedroom window and onto the stairs below, killing himself and preventing the demon from inhabiting anyone else.

Author William Peter Blatty wrote the 1971 novel The Exorcist, with director William Friedkin then adapting that novel into the 1973 film of the same name. Many consider that original film to be one of the most effective horror films of all time, which sits at 83% positive reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. That original film earned for follow-up installments, the most recent of which hit theaters in 2005.

After stagnating for more than a decade, the concept was revived for a TV series on FOX, with that series serving not only as a reimagining of the original concept, but also as a continuation of the first narrative. The TV series only ran for two seasons, despite critical acclaim.

Thanks to films like Pineapple Express, Your Highness, and The Sitter, Green established himself early on in his career as a comedic director, though his career began to expand to a variety of different genres over the years. It largely came as a surprise to horror fans when it was announced he was developing a new Halloween, only for that film to be one of that franchise's biggest financial and critical successes.

Green then went on to develop Halloween Kills and is set to direct Halloween Ends, while also being attached to develop a new Hellraiser TV series for HBO Max.

While it's unknown the timeline of all of these projects, if Green does end up serving as the director on all of them, he will surely have quite a busy few years ahead of him.

Stay tuned for updates on the upcoming The Exorcist sequel.

Does this report have you excited for a new film? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!