It’s an exciting week to be a fan of Mike Flanagan. Just a few days ago, his adaptation of Stephen King‘s Carrie landed on Prime Video, which the filmmaker revealed he hopes is just the first of three seasons. The excitement continued with the debut of new updates about his The Exorcist: Martyrs, which included plot details and official images.
The excitement doesn’t stop there, as we now have a full trailer for the upcoming movie, which you can see below. Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers), Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet), Diane Lane (Unfaithful), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Sasha Calle (The Flash), and John Leguizamo (John Wick) star in the movie, which is set to hit theaters on March 12, 2027.
The new trailer confirms details teased earlier this week, namely how the movie will pivot away from characters who become possessed by otherworldly forces and will instead unfold more like a serial killer movie. Thirteen years ago, New York City detective Julie Miller (Johansson) ended the terror reign of satanic serial killer Father Sunday. The case made her a hero, and she has thrown herself into her work ever since. Now a new killer scrawls her name in an altar boy’s blood on the walls of a church crypt, dragging her back into the darkness she believed she had buried with him.
Aided by former prison chaplain Father William (Ejiofor), who heard Father Sunday’s final confession, and sharp rookie detective Gina Restrepo (Calle, The Rip), Detective Miller will discover a filament linking a lineage of serial killers, from H.H. Holmes to the Zodiac, that could corrupt everything, and everyone, she loves with an evil that goes well beyond the mortal.
While Martyrs might not initially appear as a traditional Exorcist movie, anyone familiar with the franchise will recognize the overall narrative similarities the movie looks to have with The Exorcist III. That movie similarly focused on an investigation into a series of murders with all the hallmarks of the “Gemini Killer,” who was already dead.
Speaking with Esquire, Flanagan explained his approach to the concept and how he didn’t want to merely try to replicate the original movie.
“I think the first job is to tell people they’re not seeing a retread of The Exorcist,” he shared with the outlet. “They’re not seeing any attempt to reboot or remake or to step into the [William] Friedkin film. They’re actually seeing a story within the Exorcist universe that has not been told before, that is unique within the franchise and taking it in a very different direction than it’s gone in the past. That’s what I’m hoping. We’re doing something very, very different than what people might’ve expected.”
The Exorcist: Martyrs hits theaters on March 12, 2027.
What do you think of this first trailer? Let us know in the comments below!
