Chiwetel Ejiofor Joins Mike Flanagan’s ‘The Exorcist’ Cast

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Venom: The Last Dance) has been cast in the new take on The Exorcist from writer-director Mike Flanagan’s (“The Haunting of Hill House,” Doctor Sleep).

The Oscar nominee joins the previously announced Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers), Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet), and Diane Lane (Unfaithful).

Plot details remain under wraps, but the film will tell an all-new story set in The Exorcist universe. It is neither a remake of William Friedkin’s 1974 horror classic nor a sequel to 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer.

Flanagan is producing via his Red Room Pictures banner alongside Jason Blum for Blumhouse-Atomic Monster and David Robinson for Morgan Creek Entertainment. Executive producers include Red Room’s Alexandra Magistro and Blumhouse’s Ryan Turek.

“This is an opportunity to do something that I believe has never been done within the franchise — something that honors what came before it but isn’t built on nostalgia,“ Flanagan said of the project. “I really just saw an opportunity to make the scariest movie I’ve ever made. I know expectations are high. No one’s more intimidated than I am.”

The Exorcist is gearing up to enter production in New York City for a March 12, 2027 release via Universal.

Ejiofor previously worked with Flanagan on The Life of Chuck. He’ll next star in The Backrooms, due out later this year from A24.