10 More Upcoming Movies That Are Already Doomed

Last year's The Exorcist: Believer - a direct sequel to William Friedkin's original 1973 masterpiece - was a dud most everyone saw coming. Few were asking David Gordon Green to give The Exorcist the same sequel trilogy treatment he gave Halloween, and yet, here we are.

In 2021, Universal spent an eye-watering $400 million on the rights to the franchise with the intent of producing a new trilogy of films, Believer being the first. And while it performed decently relative to its $30 million budget, Universal were probably expecting better than $137 million worldwide given the pretty penny they paid upfront.

Considering that Believer was widely panned by critics and landed a damning "C" CinemaScore, it doesn't seem terribly likely that the planned sequel, The Exorcist: Deceiver, will do nearly as well. Furthermore, Green - who was expected to direct the entire trilogy - walked away from Deceiver back in January, at which point Universal removed the film from their release calendar, meaning it likely won't hit its planned April 18, 2025 date.

It's very much a damned sequel either way, because a direct continuation is unlikely to muster much interest, but the overall Exorcist brand may simply be too damaged for people to care about another standalone sequel.

With Universal having spent so much money on the IP already, though, something will be coming out soon enough.