The Exorcist sequel Deceiver loses David Gordon Green as director, film pulled from calendar

David Gordon Green is no longer the man with the power to compel the Exorcist franchise.

After reviving the film series with The Exorcist: Believer last year, Green is departing as director of The Exorcist: Deceiver, the second movie in a planned new trilogy, EW has confirmed. Blumhouse and Universal are now searching for a new helmer, and Universal has pulled the movie from its previous release date of April 18, 2025. (Antoine Fuqua's Michael Jackson biopic Michael will now open on that date.)

Universal and Peacock announced in back July 2021 that they had acquired the rights to make three new Exorcist films, in what the New York Times described as "a $400 million-plus megadeal." The movies would be produced by Blumhouse and Morgan Creek, with Green, who had successfully overseen Blumhouse's recent trilogy of Halloween sequels, directing the first new Exorcist installment.

That film, The Exorcist: Believer, starred Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, and franchise veteran Ellen Burstyn, but underperformed commercially when it was released last October, earning $65.5 million at the domestic box office and $70.1 million overseas. In comparison, the Blumhouse-produced and more modestly priced Five Nights at Freddy's earned $137 million domestically after it was released later in the month.

When EW spoke with Green prior to the release of The Exorcist: Believer, the filmmaker intimated that he would continue to be involved with the franchise. He said he had spoken with Linda Blair, the star of the original 1973 The Exorcist who makes a brief appearance at the end of Believer, about the possibility of reprising her role in either or both of the next two movies. According to Green, she just laughed at the idea.

"I don't know what that means," he said. "So, I'm not sure. I mean, I know we had a good time, I know she speaks very highly of the experience, and I've got infinite ideas of where we could go."

Green has plenty of work outside the Exorcist franchise to occupy him. In December, Deadline reported that he is directing Ben Stiller in the film Nutcrackers, about a workaholic who must reluctantly travel to rural Ohio to look after his four rambunctious nephews when their parents die in a car accident. Green is also an executive producer on HBO's The Righteous Gemstones.

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