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‘The Exorcist: Deceiver’ Removed from Release Calendar as David Gordon Green Exits Sequel

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The Exorcist Believer Review

Director David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer was always supposed to be the first film in a planned trilogy from Blumhouse and Universal, part of a $400 million deal to bring the franchise back to life on the big screen. In fact, The Exorcist: Deceiver had already been dated for release on April 18, 2025, but it sounds like Universal is pumping the brakes.

THR reports this afternoon that David Gordon Green will no longer be directing The Exorcist: Deceiver, and that Universal and Blumhouse are actively seeking a new director.

According to the site, Gordon Green is exiting The Exorcist: Deceiver as director because he’s busy working on feature film Nutcrackers and TV series “The Righteous Gemstones.”

The problem here is that Believer got the reboot trilogy off to a shaky start, the film flopping with critics and failing to make a huge splash at the box office. Gordon Green’s Halloween for Universal and Blumhouse back in 2018 kicked that trilogy off on a much stronger note, the film making a ton of money in theaters and winning over fans and critics alike.

Where does the franchise go from here? Will the original trilogy plans come crashing down, now that Gordon Green has moved on from the director’s chair? Stay tuned for more.

The first film in the trilogy was released theatrically on October 13, 2023, with Leslie Odom Jr. starring alongside a returning Ellen Burstyn from the original classic.

In Believer, “Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) has raised their daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) on his own.

“But when Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before.”

The final moments of The Exorcist: Believer brought Linda Blair’s Regan MacNeil back into the fold, seeming to suggest that the legacy character could return in future installments.

Exorcist David Gordon Green

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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Jessica Rothe Keeps the Hope Alive for Third ‘Happy Death Day’ Movie

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It’s now been five years since the release of sequel Happy Death Day 2U, Christopher Landon’s sequel to the Groundhog Day-style slasher movie from 2017. Both films star Jessica Rothe as final girl Tree Gelbman, and director Christopher Landon had been planning on bringing the character – and the actor – back for a third installment. So… where is it?!

We’ve been talking about a potential Happy Death Day 3 for several years now, with the ball in producer Jason Blum’s court. Happy Death Day 2U scared up $64 million at the worldwide box office, a far cry from the first film’s $125 million. But with a reported production budget of just $9 million, that first sequel was profitable for Blumhouse. So again… where is it?!

Chatting with Screen Geek this week while promoting her new action-thriller Boy Kills World, franchise star Jessica Rothe provided a hopeful update on Happy Death Day 3.

Well, I can say Chris Landon has the whole thing figured out,” Rothe explains. “We just need to wait for Blumhouse and Universal to get their ducks in a row.

Rothe continues in her comments to Screen Geek, “But my fingers are so crossed. I think Tree [Gelbman] deserves her third and final chapter to bring that incredible character and franchise to a close or a new beginning.”

Back in 2020, Christopher Landon had revealed that the working title for the third installment was Happy Death Day to Us, said to be “different than the other two films.”

In the meantime, Christopher Landon is directing a mysterious thriller titled Drop for Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes, along with a werewolf movie titled Big Bad for Lionsgate.

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