The Flanagan-verse is officially crossing over into sacred (and deeply cursed) territory.
Laurence Fishburne has joined the cast of Mike Flanagan’s upcoming Exorcist film, adding another heavyweight name to what’s shaping up to be one of the most prestige-leaning horror line-ups in years.
Fishburne’s involvement marks a rare return to the genre for the actor, whose last major brush with horror came via 1997 cult sci-fi nightmare Event Horizon. This time, he’s stepping into a project that’s less about cheap shocks and more about atmosphere, dread and emotional fallout – Flanagan’s bread and butter.
He joins a cast that already reads more like an awards-season drama than a traditional possession flick. Scarlett Johansson is set to lead in her first major, straight-up horror role, while Chiwetel Ejiofor is reportedly playing an ex-con turned priest – a very Flanagan-coded character arc if ever there was one. Diane Lane is also on board in an as-yet-undisclosed but “key” role, and rising star Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet) is rumoured to play the child at the centre of the film’s demonic chaos.
Crucially, this won’t be a sequel or a remake. Following the lukewarm reception to 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer, Universal and Blumhouse have opted for a reset of sorts. Flanagan’s film is being described as an original story set within The Exorcist universe – one that honours William Friedkin’s 1973 classic without leaning on nostalgia or legacy characters.
Flanagan has also promised that this will be his most terrifying work yet, which is saying something given his track record on The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass and Doctor Sleep. Expect fewer jump scares, more slow-burn psychological horror, and a heavy focus on grief, faith and moral reckoning.
Production is expected to kick off in New York City later this year, with Universal Pictures, Blumhouse and Morgan Creek producing. The film is currently slated for release on March 12, 2027.
With Fishburne’s gravitas now in the mix, Flanagan’s Exorcist reboot is starting to look less like a franchise salvage job and more like a serious attempt to drag one of horror’s most sacred texts back into genuinely unsettling territory.
