Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming Exorcist reboot could finally revive the legendary horror franchise after the disappointing response to 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer. Universal Studios and Blumhouse have announced that a new reiteration of the horror classic is coming. This time, they’re bringing in major starpower to purge the demonic energy: Marvel and Jurassic World star Scarlett Johansson is officially joining the project with Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House) set to direct with a planned March 12, 2027, release. What else do we know about the upcoming reboot? Stay tuned to find out more!
The upcoming Exorcist reboot aims to move away from nostalgia-driven horror and return the franchise to its psychological roots.
- 🎬 Director: Mike Flanagan
- ⭐ Star: Scarlett Johansson
- 📅 Release Date: March 12, 2027
- 👻 Genre: Supernatural Horror
Everything We Know About Scarlett Johansson’s The Exorcist Reboot
What Happened to the Previous Exorcist Reboot?
Demons never really stay gone in this franchise, apparently, including failed cinematic universes.
Clearly, things went very wrong with the previous relaunch effort. Back in 2021, Universal made headlines after securing a massive $400 million deal to develop a brand new trilogy of Exorcist films under David Gordon Green, the director behind the recent Halloween reboot trilogy. The studio hoped lightning would strike twice. Instead, audiences responded to The Exorcist: Believer with the cinematic equivalent of holy water thrown directly at the screen.
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The film earned largely negative reviews and grossed $137 million worldwide. Not catastrophic numbers for most horror films, but not exactly the triumphant resurrection Universal hoped for after spending enough money to buy several haunted mansions outright. The planned trilogy quietly stalled afterward, and now Flanagan’s new film essentially puts the final nail in the coffin for Green’s version of the franchise. Ironically, in horror movies, coffins rarely stay shut for long.
Why Mike Flanagan Is the Perfect Choice
Scarlett Johansson The Exorcist reboot
What makes Flanagan’s hiring particularly exciting is that he feels like a much more natural fit for The Exorcist universe. Green’s strengths leaned toward action-heavy horror with bursts of comedy and meta commentary. That worked well enough for Michael Myers slicing through suburban neighborhoods. But The Exorcist has always operated on a different wavelength. It’s slower. Sadder. More psychological. The horror comes less from jump scares and more from the dreadful feeling that something deeply wrong has invaded an ordinary family.
That’s exactly the sort of material Flanagan thrives on.
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Over the last decade, he’s become one of horror’s most reliable storytellers through projects like Oculus, Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Doctor Sleep, and The Haunting of Hill House. His work usually blends supernatural terror with grief, trauma, guilt, and broken families. Basically, if there’s emotional devastation involved, Flanagan is probably already storyboarding it. And unlike many studio horror directors-for-hire, Flanagan tends to write his own material. His movies feel distinctly personal. You can usually tell when you’re watching “a Mike Flanagan thing.” Lots of emotional monologues. People crying in dimly lit hallways. Ghosts appear in the background while you’re too distracted by feelings to notice them. It works.
According to Flanagan himself, this new version will bring a “fresh, bold” take to the franchise. “The Exorcist is one of the reasons I became a filmmaker, and it is an honor to have the chance to try something fresh, bold, and terrifying within its universe.”
That last part is especially important: within its universe.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Flanagan’s film is neither a remake nor a direct sequel. Instead, it exists somewhere inside the larger Exorcist mythology. That opens the door to far more creative possibilities, and probably several doors that should absolutely remain closed.
At the moment, plot details remain tightly guarded, though some casting clues offer hints. Fans of Hereditary, The Conjuring, and Doctor Sleep will likely appreciate the darker psychological approach Flanagan seems to be taking.
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Scarlett Johansson and the New Cast Look Promising
Scarlett Johansson The Exorcist reboot
Johansson reportedly plays a mother, while Noah Jupe plays her son. That alone already sounds suspiciously stressful. Nobody in The Exorcist franchise ever gets to simply have a relaxing family vacation. Add actors like John Leguizamo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Laurence Fishburne, and Diane Lane into the mix, and suddenly this thing is looking much more prestigious than “small child projectile vomits on priest.”
Leguizamo may reportedly play an antagonist, which honestly sounds delightful. The man already has chaotic energy when playing normal humans. Giving him demonic-adjacent material feels like a natural progression.
Scarlett Johansson The Exorcist reboot
And then there’s Johansson herself, who is stepping into horror territory again after films like Under the Skin, which feels genuinely promising. She brings major star power, sure, but also emotional credibility. You may know her best as Black Widow and other action-heavy roles, but don’t forget that she is also a two-time Academy Award nominee.
If the film leans heavily into family trauma and psychological dread, as Flanagan’s work often does, she could anchor the story in a way previous sequels struggled to achieve.
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What Could the New Exorcist Reboot Be About?
It was one of the biggest problems with Believer. The marketing campaign heavily revolved around bringing back Ellen Burstyn from the original film. It clearly hoped nostalgia alone would do the heavy lifting. Audiences, however, have gotten smarter about legacy sequels. People don’t just want recognizable faces wheeled back into frame for applause breaks. They want an actual reason for the story to exist. Horror fans can smell hollow nostalgia bait from a mile away. Usually, before the possessed child even starts crab-walking downstairs.
That’s where Flanagan and Blumhouse’s existing creative relationship becomes encouraging. Their collaborations have consistently landed well with audiences and critics alike.
Scarlett Johansson The Exorcist reboot
Flanagan himself acknowledged that history, saying: “Reuniting with my friends at Blumhouse, with whom I’ve made some of my favorite pieces of work, only makes this more exciting.”
Meanwhile, Jason Blum seems fully aware of what Flanagan brings to the table. “Mike’s voice and vision are indispensable for horror fans, and we are excited to welcome him back to Blumhouse. I immediately responded to Mike’s new take on the world of The Exorcist and can’t wait for audiences to experience it.”
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Why This Exorcist Reboot Could Finally Work
Scarlett Johansson The Exorcist reboot
That phrase—“new take”—keeps popping up around this project. Which is probably the smartest possible direction. Trying to simply recreate the original 1973 masterpiece would be pointless. The Exorcist already exists, and it still works disturbingly well over fifty years later. The spinning heads, the levitation, the deeply cursed pea soup incidents—they’re all burned into horror history.
The smarter move is finding a new angle on the same terror.
Still, it’s hard to imagine any Exorcist movie completely abandoning the franchise’s iconic imagery. Odds are good we’ll still get at least one poor soul strapped to a floating bed while someone desperately reads Latin nearby. Some traditions are sacred. Or unholy. Depends on perspective. The real question is whether Flanagan can make those familiar elements feel frightening again instead of simply recognizable.
Scarlett Johansson The Exorcist reboot
If anyone has a shot, it’s probably him. His work tends to understand that horror lands hardest when you care deeply about the people involved. The demons matter less than the emotional damage they exploit. That emotional foundation is exactly what made the original Exorcist so effective in the first place. Beneath all the shocking imagery, it was really about fear, helplessness, faith, and watching a family unravel in ways they cannot control.
And if this reboot can capture even a fraction of that feeling while carving out its own identity, Universal may finally have the Exorcist revival it wanted all along.
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Scarlett Johansson The Exorcist reboot
At the very least, horror fans can probably expect something moodier, stranger, and far more unsettling than another nostalgia-fueled retread. For the first time in years, The Exorcist franchise finally feels genuinely exciting again.
Do you think Mike Flanagan can finally revive The Exorcist franchise?
