David Gordon Green might not end up directing any more Exorcist reboot movies

For reasons we can’t possibly imagine, it suddenly sounds like David Gordon Green might not end up directing two more Exorcist movies after The Exorcist: Believer—though, to be fair, that was always the implied plan but not literally the announced plan, so Green and Universal have some wiggle room here and this doesn’t necessarily mean he’s been fired. This came up in a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, during which Green said (after a brief pause, apparently) that he’s just “navigating [potential future movies] from a story perspective” and that he’s going to be “looking at my realities of life” as he switches between Exorcist movies and his work on HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. He says he’ll be “thrilled” if things work out and he can make this next movie, but he’s not officially on board yet.

The Exorcist: Deceiver, the follow-up to Believer, is already penciled in for release in April of 2025. It’s supposed to be the second of three new Exorcist movies that, like Green’s Halloween trilogy, ignore the events of all previous sequels. It may seem odd for Universal to dive into a whole series of new Exorcist movies so eagerly when this first one is not getting a particularly warm response, but the studio paid a stunning $400 million just for the rights to the franchise, so it’s going to need to milk this thing quite a bit if it wants to make that money back. Exorcist theme park? Exorcist video games? Disney+-style TV spin-offs about minor characters in the Exorcist canon?

Whoever ends up making these next two movies—which are most likely inevitable, whether or not Green remains involved—at least original Exorcist director William Friedkin doesn’t have to deal with anyone asking him to see them anymore. Then again, if Universal had asked him, he probably would’ve been able to tell the studio not to waste so much money on a series that has rarely been known to have much life outside of its first entry.