After David Gordon Green's trilogy effectively stalled the franchise, Universal and Blumhouse handed the keys to Mike Flanagan. On October 7, the project revealed its official title: The Exorcist: Martyrs. A 15-second teaser dropped the same day. The full trailer arrives Friday, October 9.
Scarlett Johansson plays Julie Miller, a single-mother detective who, thirteen years prior, helped bring down Father Sunday, a satanic serial killer who re-staged the martyrdoms of Catholic saints as murders. A new wave of killings forces Miller back into the case. At the same time, a demonic presence targets her twelve-year-old son. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a priest drawn into both threads.
The supporting cast is the deepest the franchise has fielded: John Leguizamo as Father Sunday, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Sasha Calle, Rahul Kohli, Carla Gugino, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, and Carl Lumbly, among others. Flanagan directs from a script developed through his Red Room Pictures banner, alongside Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, and Morgan Creek Entertainment.
According to Dark Horizons, Flanagan has described the film as his attempt to deliver something "never been done within the franchise," with an emphasis on atmosphere and psychological tension rather than spectacle. The Exorcist: Martyrs is the seventh film in the franchise. It opens March 12, 2027, via Universal Pictures.
