New Exorcist movie loses release date and director

ellen burstyn and leslie odom jr in the exorcist believer
New Exorcist movie loses release date and directorUniversal

The Exorcist: Deceiver has lost its director David Gordon Green – and its originally-planned April 2025 release date.

Green was set to direct the film, a sequel to 2023's poorly-received The Exorcist: Believer, which followed on from the classic 1973 horror movie.

According to Variety, Deceiver has now been removed from Universal's release calendar and replaced with Antoine Fuqua's Michael Jackson biopic Michael, which will land on April 18, 2025.

david gordon green, a man wearing a white button down shirt and purple pants, holding a microphone while speaking on stage
Rick Kern/WireImage - Getty Images

Related: The Exorcist: Believer director explains how the shocking ending came about

Green is currently in production on comedy-drama Nutcrackers starring Ben Stiller and Season 4 of HBO series The Righteous Gemstones.

He was previously the director of the Halloween sequel trilogy starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

The Exorcist: Deceiver is set to be the second part in a trilogy rebooting The Exorcist, which was first announced in 2020.

However, Believer suffered from mostly negative critical reviews despite taking $137 million at the box office. It saw Ellen Burstyn reprise her role as Chris MacNeil from the original film, leading the cast alongside Leslie Odom Jr.

Believer was produced by Blumhouse Productions' Jason Blum, who previously promised sceptics they'd be pleasantly surprised by the sequel.

ellen burstyn and leslie odom jr in the exorcist believer
Universal

Related: The Exorcist: Believer ending explained – Do Angela and Katherine survive?

"I think it's going to pleasantly surprise all the skeptics out there," Blum said back in 2021. "We had a lot of skeptics about Halloween and David turned them around, and I think he's going to turn it around with The Exorcist.

"I want to make a movie for people that know and love the first Exorcist and are furious that we're doing this, but somehow drag themselves to the theatre. I want them to come out happy.

"And I want to make a movie that people who've never heard of The Exorcist really enjoy," he added. "I think David did that with Halloween. I think he'll do that with The Exorcist also."

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