Universal has confirmed that The Exorcist movie by Mike Flanagan is coming out in 2026 on a fittingly creepy date.
The latest installment in the 50-year-strong franchise will hit theaters on Friday, March 13, 2026.
Flanagan has said about the project ”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.”
The film will be produced by Trevor Macy (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) for Intrepid Pictures, by Flanagan for his Red Room Pictures, and by Jason Blum (Five Nights at Freddy’s, M3GAN) for Blumhouse.
How did Mike Flanagan end up handling The Exorcist franchise?
David Gordon Green had launched The Exorcist Trilogy with last year’s The Exorcist Believer. Unfortunately, it took a critical beating. Subsequently, its box office was dwarfed by stablemate Five Nights at Freddy’s. Green then walked away from directing the sequel, and a trilogy was scrapped for Flanagan’s standalone movie.
Universal and Blumhouse bought the rights to The Exorcist from Morgan Creek for $400m in 2021. Clearly, the damage caused by The Exorcist Believer makes it sensible to start over with a standalone movie.
Mike Flanagan has been behind a host of modern horror gems on our screens, big and small. His Netflix shows such as The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass cemented his status in the genre. Making a follow-up to both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick’s versions of The Shining in one film (Doctor Sleep) is also great practice for taking The Exorcist on. The well-warranted acclaim Wiliam Fridekin’s 1973 classic The Exorcist gets makes every follow-up an uphill struggle.
Before this film, Flanagan is back in the world of Stephen King. His adaptation of The Life of Chuck is heading to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The first image of star Tom Hiddleston in the movie was released yesterday.
