‘Vertigo’ – Robert Downey Jr. in Talks to Star in Remake of Hitchcock Classic

David Gordon Green‘s The Exorcist is set to be a legacy follow-up to the original classic, and Above the Line reports this week that Linda Blair is involved in some capacity.

Jeff Sneider reports, “Linda Blair will reprise her role as Regan MacNeil, Above the Line has exclusively learned. Sources say that Blair was only on set for a few days, so she’s not in the film all that much, but her return to the franchise should make fans’ heads spin with excitement.”

It’s worth noting that a Blumhouse spokesperson only confirmed to Sneider that Blair “served as an advisor” on the new movie, refusing to confirm or deny an on-screen appearance.

If she is indeed in the film as Sneider reports on Above the Line, it would mark Linda Blair’s first appearance in The Exorcist franchise since the original sequel back in 1977.

Gordon Green is directing the brand new sequel to The Exorcist for Universal, Blumhouse and Morgan Creek that will pave the way for a new trilogy. The first film in the trilogy will be released theatrically on October 13, 2023, with Leslie Odom Jr. starring alongside Ellen Burstyn, who will be reprising her role as Chris MacNeil from the original 1973 movie.

The first plot details we were provided with last year tease, “Odom Jr. will play the father of a possessed child. Desperate for help, he tracks down Ms. Burstyn’s character.”

Ann Dowd (Hereditary), Lidya Jewett (Netflix’s Nightbooks), Raphael Sbarge (“Gaslit”), Jennifer Nettles (The Righteous Gemstones), and Olivia Marcum are also on board.

Peter Sattler (Broken Diamonds) and Gordon Green wrote the script for The Exorcist, which features a story by Green, Scott Teems (Halloween Kills) and Danny McBride (Halloween).

The Exorcist franchise hasn’t been on the big screen since the 2005 release of Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist, an alternate version of the previous year’s Exorcist: The Beginning. Those films came in the wake of 1977’s The Exorcist II: The Heretic and 1990’s The Exorcist III.

More recently, “The Exorcist” became a short-lived television series at Fox, which was surprisingly excellent and cleverly took place in the same world as the original classic.