Why isn’t David Gordon Green directing The Exorcist: Deceiver?
The Exorcist: Deceiver, once due to release in April 2025, has been removed from Universal and Blumhouse’s release schedule while the studios search for a new director. According to Deadline, “Green is currently busy with the Ben Stiller movie Nutcrackers, as well as the fourth season of the HBO comedy series The Righteous Gemstones.”
This news wasn’t exactly a surprise; in an interview published soon after Believer’s October release, Green told the Hollywood Reporter that his plans might be subject to change. “My intention is just to start making things, and as those plans come together, if I find myself in that [The Exorcist: Deceiver] director’s chair, I’d be thrilled … But right now, I’m navigating it from a story perspective and looking at my realities of life as I pivot.”
More Exorcist films (Green’s trilogy was first announced in 2021) will likely still happen no matter what; while Believer didn’t set the box office on fire, it quickly made back its $30 million budget—and as Variety pointed out in the wake of the film’s release, there’s a lot riding on this series, since “Universal ponied up a hair-raising $400 million to purchase rights for this new Exorcist trilogy.” The trade also mentioned the possibility that Green might not direct, foreshadowing the announcement to that fact four months later—and suggested that the next two Exorcist films could potentially bypass theaters and go straight to Peacock.
