Back in December 2020, it was announced that Blumhouse and Halloween and Halloween Kills director David Gordon Green are set to develop a sequel to 1973’s The Exorcist.
Now, in an interview with Den of Geek, Jason Blum has teased what fans can expect from the upcoming sequel by comparing it to 2018’s Halloween reboot and hopes the film will surprise the sceptics of the project.
“[It’s] going to be like David’s Halloween sequel,” Blum said. “I think it’s going to pleasantly surprise all the sceptics out there. We had a lot of sceptics about Halloween and David turned them around, and I think he’s going to turn it around with The Exorcist…I love to do [these] kinds of movies because people are very emotional about it. I think it’s a high bar and it’s a challenge to do the movie. Remember, most of the audience coming to this—95 percent of the audience who will, if we do our job right, come to see this movie—will not have seen the first Exorcist or even heard of it.”
Although there are no additional details on the sequel, Green and Blumhouse are also currently working on the Halloween sequels Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, which are scheduled to release in October 2021 and October 2022 respectively.
Directed by William Friedkin and based on William Peter Blatty’s novel of the same name, The Exorcist revolved around the demonic possession of a young girl and featured a cast that included Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair and Jason Miller. After a huge success at the box office, it spawned the sequels Exorcist II: The Heretic and The Exorcist III, as well as prequels Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist.