The Exorcist Reboot Reportedly Being Developed

According to a new report from Deadline, studio Morgan Creek is currently developing a reboot of the 1973 film The Exorcist. These details were largely buried in a piece confirming that actress Rachel Weisz would be starring in and producing an adaptation of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers for the studio, with the details about the Exorcist reboot merely being that a “theatrical reboot” was one of the studio’s current projects. Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, the original film earned four follow-up movies, the most recent of which hit theaters back in 2005, while FOX delivered a TV series adaptation of the source material that lasted for two seasons.

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.

Theatrical releases that followed the debut film went in a number of directions, with the TV series adaptation seemingly being a disconnected tale of terror. Late in the first season, however, we learn that Geena Davis was playing Regan, the young girl who was targetted in the first story, with demonic forces extending to terrorize her family. The second season of the series, however, diverted from the events of the first season for an all-new story.

The original film by director William Friedkin is largely considered one of the most important horror films of all time, with Rotten Tomatoes calculating 83% of its reviews being positive. Despite most of the theatrical releases in the franchise having disappointing critical reactions, the TV series was a surprise success, as it sits at 89% positive reviews on the site.

Despite the series being cancelled, creator Jeremy Slater previously detailed what he had hoped to explore in a third season.

“Part of the story in Season Three would be Marcus having to use his connections to this religious underworld to track down his missing partner,” Slater revealed to TVLine back in 2018. “If he can’t necessarily trust the Church anymore, because it’s been compromised, I think it’d be fun to see Marcus having to go outside the bounds of the Church and talk to some of the people he would have met over his last 30 years of exorcising people. [Sources] who deal in conspiracy theories, religious reliquaries, and things like that… Shamans and rabbis and people from different faiths who may be fighting the same evil using different terminology and different methodology.”

Stay tuned for details on The Exorcist.

Are you looking forward to a reboot? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!