Summary

• The Exorcist: Deceiver has lost its director and has been removed from the release calendar.
• The underwhelming box office performance of The Exorcist: Believer led to a rumored retooling of the sequel's creative direction.
• The Exorcist: Deceiver is the second installment in David Gordon Green's new Exorcist trilogy.

The Exorcist: Deceiver has lost its director. The movie is meant to be the second installment in a trilogy kicked off by Blumhouse's The Exorcist: Believer, which was helmed by David Gordon Green, the director of the 2018 Halloween trilogy. However, the box office gross of The Exorcist: Believer, a legacy sequel to the original 1973 classic featuring Ellen Burstyn reprising her role as Chris MacNeil, was underwhelming, leading to a rumored retooling of the sequel's creative direction.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the The Exorcist: Deceiver no longer has a director attached. Green will not be following the precedent he set by helming all three new Halloween movies, instead opting to focus his attention on his new movie Nutcrackers and The Righteous Gemstones season 4. It has also been removed from its planned release date of April 18, 2025.

Is The Exorcist Trilogy In Trouble?

This news is the latest blow for the proposed Exorcist trilogy. While The Exorcist: Believer box office turned out a solid $137 million off its $30 million budget, the costs for the new trilogy run much deeper than their production budgets. The distribution rights for the Exorcist franchise came at a steep reported price of $400 million, a total in which the new movie's gross has hardly made a dent.

Not including the new trilogy, the Exorcist franchise includes the original movie, two sequels, two prequels, and a two-season television show.

In addition to the Exorcist: Believer box office performing far below expectations, it was a critical flop. The movie received a dismal Rotten Tomatoes score of 22% in addition to a Metacritic score of 39 out of 100. In the wake of the movie's release, it was originally reported that Blumhouse and Universal were moving forward with the sequel and intended to maintain the planned release date, but the loss of Green (who had been distancing himself from the project by stating he hadn't been officially attached to Deceiver) seems to have thrown a wrench into the proceedings.

Now that the future of The Exorcist: Deceiver is much more in limbo, it remains to be seen what creative direction the studios will choose for the horror sequel. It seems inevitable that the movie will be made, as there is still a chance it could help recoup that steep initial investment. However, its box office performance will likely determine whether a third movie in the trilogy is actually a financially viable prospect.

Source: THR