Chiwetel Ejiofor Joins Mike Flanagan’s Exorcist reboot

The Hollywood Reporter has recently confirmed an exciting cast update for horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan’s upcoming installment to the influential and iconic Exorcist franchise. 

Known for his incredible performances in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave and Ridley Scott’s The Martian, award-winning British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor is the latest name signed on for the Gerald Game’s director’s take on William Peter Blatty’s horrifying supernatural novel, published in 1971. 

The story centres around Regan McNail, a young girl who becomes possessed by a merciless demon known as Pazuzu, leading her desperate mother to seek the help of two priests to save her child. 

Ejiofor will join Marvel star Scarlett Johansson in Flanagan’s film, which is currently scheduled for a 2027 release. There is a pressured atmosphere surrounding the director’s film, as the last Exorcist release was the hugely panned The Exorcist: Believer in 2023, which was directed by David Gordon Green (the 2018-2021 recon trilogy of the Halloween films). This film was supposed to be the first installement of a planned trilogy; however, scathing responses from audiences and critics alike, such as a 57% Rotten Tomatoes critical score and a 22% audience score, caused the next two films to be dropped immediately. 

Flanagan was then signed on to resurrect the dying franchise, which began in 1973 with William Friedkin’s adaptation of the original novel, leading to one of the greatest, most influential horror films of all time. It starred Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn in Oscar-nominated performances, making history as the first horror feature to receive the nomination for Best Picture at the 46th Academy Awards. 

There was an initially planned March 2026 release date for Flanagan’s turn working on Blatty’s prose; however, the filmmaker pushed production back to focus on his TV adaptation of Stephen King’s debut 1974 novel Carrie (another iconic horror story, which was first adapted for the screen by Brian De Palma in 1976, which is also considered one of the genre’s best). 

Jacobi Jupe and Diane Lane are also set to appear in the reboot with horror favourite Blumhouse as the production company. There is a current 27th March, 2027 release date planned. 

Ejiofor is also set to appear in the upcoming horror The Backrooms, the feature debut by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Kane Parsons about a therapist braving an alternate dimension to rescue a patient.