Inside the 24-Style Exorcist Sequel Guillermo del Toro Pitched—and Why Hollywood Said No
Guillermo del Toro was once tapped to pitch The Exorcist 4—and his vision would have reimagined the franchise as a 24-style, real-time possession thriller.
Here is a fun what-if for your horror brain: once upon a time, Guillermo del Toro almost made an Exorcist movie that played like a high-anxiety thriller. It had a ticking clock, multiple exorcisms, and a title the studio apparently liked so much they used it for a while without asking. And then they told him they did not want any exorcisms. In an Exorcist movie. Sure.
Guillermo del Toro vs. Exorcist 4: the wild version that never happened
Del Toro told The Guardian back in 2006 that, sometime after Cronos and in that window between Mimic (1997) and The Devil's Backbone (2001), he got called in by Morgan Creek to pitch what would have been The Exorcist 4. He came in hot with a title and a vibe: a grim, episodic structure that moved with the intensity of Fox's real-time nail-biter 24.
His title pitch: "Exorcist: Chapter 4 Verse I." He even mocked up a stark black poster that just read:
"God is not here. Exorcist: Chapter 4 Verse I"
According to del Toro, the studio liked that title enough to use it for a bit without clearing it with him. The story he wanted to tell was even bolder: a possessed child kills a priest inside Vatican City. Because the Vatican is its own sovereign state, local police can't just storm in, so they bring in Father Merrin. This would be Merrin's second face-off with the devil (the first, in del Toro's take, happened years earlier in Eastern Europe), and the entire movie would move in terse, chapter-like bursts — multiple exorcisms, relentless momentum, no hand-holding.
The kicker was the villain's threat, delivered by the devil disguised as a young Nazi officer:
"You and I will face each other again. I will attempt to take three children in your lifetime. If you succeed in saving one of them, you will be free. If you don't you will be mine."
That setup is very much del Toro: mythic stakes, moral weight, and a genre mash-up of horror and thriller. But the meeting crashed into a wall when the studio laid down its note. Del Toro remembers it this way:
"But it's called The Exorcist."
"Yeah, but the last movie had an exorcism and it didn't make money."
That was the end of the conversation, and the film never went forward. Del Toro, of course, kept blending fantasy and horror in the years that followed with things like Pan's Labyrinth and later Crimson Peak, but his Vatican-set, chapter-driven Exorcist remains a tantalizing road not taken.
Cut to now: Mike Flanagan is trying to fix The Exorcist after Believer face-planted
Fast-forward to the present mess. Universal shelled out a reported $400 million in 2021 for a new Exorcist trilogy from David Gordon Green. The first film, The Exorcist: Believer, underwhelmed across the board — critics, fans, and the box office. Enter Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep), who stepped in to write, direct, and produce a fresh film set in the Exorcist universe for Universal and Blumhouse.
That movie was initially planted on a March 2026 release date. Not anymore. Flanagan posted on Tumblr that he has shifted focus to his Carrie series for Amazon MGM Studios and that the Exorcist film hasn't even started production:
"Production hasn't started, we need to finish Carrie first. No way it's coming out next March. Nothing to worry about though."
Shortly after, Universal quietly pulled the title from its 2026 schedule and slotted in another Blumhouse project instead (per THR). Flanagan has been candid about why he chased this gig:
"I chased The Exorcist very aggressively because I was convinced I had something that I could add… 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."
Where Believer left things
- Movie: The Exorcist: Believer
- Director: David Gordon Green
- Cast: Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett, Olivia O'Neill, Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 22%
- Runtime: 2h 1m
- Box office: $136.9M worldwide (via The Numbers)
- Streaming (US): Peacock
So what happens next?
Flanagan says there's nothing to panic about and that he still wants to make the scariest movie of his career. But with the date gone, production not underway, and Universal pivoting its slate, the Exorcist timeline is very much in limbo.
Would del Toro's chapter-by-chapter exorcism gauntlet have jolted this franchise years ago? Maybe. For now, we wait to see if Flanagan gets his shot — and if Universal lets him actually make an Exorcist movie with, you know, exorcisms.
Do you think Flanagan's Exorcist will make it to theaters, or will it stall out like del Toro's? Tell me in the comments.