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Scarlett Johansson’s Exorcist Movie Finally Gets Major Update
2025 was a stellar year for the horror genre, and one of Hollywood’s biggest stars is getting in on the fun. That would be MCU and Jurassic World: Rebirth star Scarlett Johansson, who will be making her horror genre debut in a classic franchise that hasn’t reached the heights of the original in quite some time. Now the project has revealed a major update that moves it a huge step forward towards becoming a reality.
Johansson is set to star alongside Jacobi Jupe in a new Exorcist film from creator Mike Flanagan, and thanks to Variety, the project finally has a release date. Universal has announced that The Exorcist film is slated to hit theaters on March 12th, 2027, which means the film is likely to start filming sometime later this year.
Flanagan is writing the film and will also be producing and directing, and the project will be a team-up between Universal and Blumhouse-=Atomic Monster. At the moment, the only confirmed cast are Johansson and Jupe, who is coming off of his breakout role in Hamnet. Now that the film has a date, the cast should start to expand a bit, especially since this project seems to be a priority for the studio.
Mike Flanagan and Scarlett Johansson Hope To Bring The Exorcist Back To Relevance
The Exorcist became a horror genre classic when it was released in 1973, as the William Friedkin film went on to score stellar reviews and bring in $441 million at the box office. The film still holds up to this day and stands out as one of the more disturbing films ever, thanks to the brilliant performance of Linda Blair, but franchise success hasn’t really come to fruition in the decades since.
Universal looked to change that when it purchased the rights to the film for a sizable $400 million, and the plan was to begin a new Exorcist trilogy. That was supposed to begin with The Exorcist: Believer in 2023, which was set in the same world and was framed as a direct sequel to the original film. The project even brought back original film star Ellen Burstyn, but the film fell short of expectations at the box office, and Universal decided to pivot.
That led to Universal bringing in Flanagan to helm the franchise, and it’s a franchise he’s immensely passionate about, which hopefully will lead to a return to prominence for a genre icon. “I chased The Exorcist very aggressively because I was convinced I had something that I could add,” Flanagan told THR. “This is an opportunity to do something that I believe has never been done within the franchise — something that honors what came before it but isn’t built on nostalgia.”
The Exorcist will hit theaters on March 12, 2027.
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