Post-Avengers: Endgame has been pretty good for Scarlett Johansson. Yes, she finally got her Black Widow solo movie, but that’s nothing compared to two Oscar nominations, two Wes Anderson movies, and now two new franchises joined. The first was this year’s Jurassic World: Rebirth, a not-really-a-sequel-but-a-sequel to the Jurassic World movies. It made close to $870 million worldwide, the fourth-highest grosser of the year so far. Now, Johansson will join another not-really-a-sequel-but-a-sequel in Blumhouse and Universal’s new entry into the Exorcist series.
According to the press release, Johansson will play the lead role in director Mike Flanagan’s “radical new take” on The Exorcist. This comes after David Gordon Green’s disastrous legacy sequel Exorcist: Believer from 2023 failed to spark a new trilogy. Flanagan’s film is not tied to Believer but is instead set in the Exorcist universe. What exactly that means and whether and how much it ties into William Peter Blatty’s original books is as yet unknown. However, Flanagan has proven very adept at adapting literary horror to film and TV to say the least.
“Scarlett is a brilliant actress whose captivating performances always feel grounded and real, from genre films to summer blockbusters, and I couldn’t be happier to have her join this Exorcist film,” said Flanagan.
Flanagan most recently wrapped production on the Amazon MGM Studios TV adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel, Carrie. He also penned the screenplay for the DCU horror film, Clayface. Both are due out next year. Johansson, unlike Flanagan, has not done much in the horror genre. As a kid, she was in the monster movie comedy Eight Legged Freaks and in 2013 she starred in Jonathan Glazer’s trippy extraterrestrial film Under the Skin.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.