Academy Award winner Russell Crowe plays real-life exorcist Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist, which made an impressive $76 million in theaters last year and shot to the top of Netflix’s streaming charts in the wake of its theatrical release. We had learned almost exactly one year ago that Screen Gems was working on a sequel, but what’s the latest on that?

In a recent chat with Virgin Media Television’s The Six O’Clock Show – brought to our attention by MovieWeb – Russell Crowe himself provided a fresh update on the future of our favorite Vespa-riding exorcist. It sounds like a trilogy had originally been planned at Screen Gems, but a change of studio heads has muddied up the works at this particular moment in time.

Crowe explained to the show when asked if he would be reprising the role of Gabriele Amorth, “That’s in discussion at the moment. The original producers… they originally got the kickoff from the studio not just for one sequel but for two. But there’s been a change of studio heads at the moment so that’s going around in a few circles. But very definitely, man.”

“We set that character up that you could take him out and put him into a lot of different circumstances,” Crowe continued. “And remember that the man that’s based on, Gabriele Amorth, he wrote twelve books. So we have more than enough source material to do one or two more of those films. But that probably won’t be until next year.”

In other words, it sounds likely that The Pope’s Exorcist 2 will eventually get off the ground, but it could be a bit before we have the next update. Stay tuned for more as we learn it.

There’s nothing remarkable about The Pope’s Exorcist, either good or bad, but a fun performance from Russell Crowe makes it worth a watch. He’s able to elevate the material from forgettable to enjoyable, which would explain why even Fangoria is demanding a sequel.

Julius Avery (Overlord) directed The Pope’s Exorcist.

From Sony’s Screen Gems, The Pope’s Exorcist is based on real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, “the legendary Italian priest who performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Vatican.”