Mike Flanagan’s The Exorcist is shaping up to be a wild ride. Deadline reports that another major star has joined the upcoming film from the horror auteur, this time in the form of Academy Award nominee Diane Lane, who will star in the film alongside previously announced stars Scarlett Johansson and Jacobi Jupe.
No word has been released on who Lane will be playing in the film, though that’s not necessarily a surprise given how tightly the project is being kept under wraps. Flanagan is set to direct the film from his own script, as a follow-up to the ill-fated The Exorcist: Believer, from Halloween reboot director David Gordon Green — though Flanagan’s film won’t serve as a sequel to that project, but rather an independent story in the Exorcist universe.
While we don’t really know exactly what Flanagan’s Exorcist film will focus on, the Midnight Mass helmer previously spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the project, and what exactly he’s bringing to the project to make it uniquely terrifying:
“We aren’t making this easy on ourselves. But I’ve always felt that there’s no point in going into a franchise or into a property that monolithic unless there’s something new you can bring. I chased The Exorcist very aggressively because I was convinced I had something that I could add. This is an opportunity to do something that I believe has never been done within the franchise — something that honors what came before it but isn’t built on nostalgia. I really just saw an opportunity to make the scariest movie I’ve ever made. I know expectations are high. No one’s more intimidated than I am.”
Lane hasn’t really dabbled in horror films much in the past, though she’s starred in plenty of thrillers, including Untraceable and Unfaithful. Her most recent role was in the dystopian political thriller Anniversary, which hit theaters last year, but The Exorcist will almost certainly be a complete one-eighty from anything we’ve seen from her before.
Flanagan’s The Exorcist hits theaters on March 12, 2027.
