Scarlett Johansson Will Star In Mike Flanagan’s Exorcist Reboot

The Exorcist: Believer may have tanked, but Mike Flanagan and Scarlett Johansson could prove to be the franchise’s salvation.

Scarlett Johansson will play the lead in writer and director Mike Flanagan‘s upcoming reboot of The Exorcist for Universal and Blumhouse. Who ScarJo is playing is anyone’s guess – a nun, maybe? You could slot a nun into an Exorcist flick fairly painlessly. But that’s pure speculation.

Nonetheless and nun or not, Johansson has signed on for the film according to The Hollywood Reporter. This comes after Universal paid a staggering $400m for the rights to thee entire Exorcist shebang in perpetuity in 2021. They immediately handed the reins to Halloween (2018) director David Gordon Green, who fanged out The Exorcist: Believer in 2023.

Believer was absolutely dreadful – which was always a risk, as anyone who saw Halloween Ends can tell you. Worse – from Universal’s perspective – it underperformed at the box office, with a global take of $137m US against a budget of $30m. Which sounds good, I know, but then you remember that $400m price tag on the rights. Universal wanted a trilogy out of this thing at minimum, but that was clearly out of the question.

So, take two: Mike Flanagan, the acclaimed filmmaker behind the likes of Midnight Mass, The Fall Of The House Of Usher (which I finally finished and highly recommend), and Doctor Sleep, who has been given carte blanche to make whatever kind of Exorcist flick he likes. Flanagan, who is writing, directing, and producing, has stressed that his film is not a reboot, nor a sequel or remake, but a separate film set in the same universe. It’s still a reboot, mind you, but he’d rather you not call it that. Still, he’s very happy to be making it.

“The Exorcist is one of the reasons I became a filmmaker, and it is an honor to have the chance to try something fresh, bold and terrifying within its universe,” Flanagan said.

He also said we’re going to be waiting a bit, as he still has to knock his upcoming Carrie miniseries for Amazon on the head.

And that’s about all we know. Interesting stuff, though.