Production has commenced on writer-director Mike Flanagan's The Exorcist, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jacobi Jupe of Hamnet fame in the lead roles. The filmmaker announced the news on Friday night with a clapperboard picture from the set. The delayed production has pushed the film's earlier-planned March 2026 release to summer 2027. The upcoming movie is billed as a "radical new take" on William Friedkin's 1973 horror film.

The cast also includes Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Leguizamo, Sasha Calle, Rahul Kohli, Gil Bellows, Hamish Linklater, Carl Lumbly, Benjamin Pajak, John Gallagher Jr, Robert Longstreet, Carla Gugino, Matt Biedel, Kate Siegel, and Samantha Sloyan.

The 1973 original revolves around the exorcism of a 12-year-old girl (Linda Blair) by a couple of priests. When the child starts to act violently and develop mysterious symptoms, her actor mother (Ellen Burstyn) asks a priest to perform an exorcism on her. The film earned ten Oscar nominations in 1974, including a Best Picture nomination, and won in the Best Sound category.

Meanwhile, the upcoming film is set in the same world as director Friedkin's 1973 horror classic and is not designed as a sequel to any of the other films in the franchise. It marks Scarlett Johansson's first true-blue, traditional horror film, although the actor is also known for the sci-fi horror film Under the Skin (2013) and the 2002 horror-comedy Eight Legged Freaks.

Besides directing the film from his own screenplay, Flanagan is also producing it under his banner Red Room Pictures alongside Jason Blum of Blumhouse, David Robinson of Morgan Creek Entertainment, and Atomic Monster. The film brings Flanagan back together with Blumhouse after collaborations on 2013’s  Oculus and 2016's Hush and Ouija: Origin of Evil. It will bring Flanagan back to feature film direction after 2024's The Life of Chuck.

Coming back to Flanagan's The Exorcist, the film is slated for a March 12, 2027, release in theatres.