Ellen Burstyn slams Mike Flanagan’s new Exorcist movie: “Isn’t there enough already?”
Ellen Burstyn revisits her Exorcist legacy and drops a blunt take on Hollywood’s latest revival—one longtime fans of the horror franchise might not see coming.
Asked about Mike Flanagan’s next swing at The Exorcist while promoting her new poetry audiobook, Ellen Burstyn didn’t hedge. The 93-year-old, who played Chris MacNeil in William Friedkin’s 1973 classic, was talking to Variety when the conversation turned to Flanagan’s upcoming film.
“Isn't there enough already of the ‘Exorcist’ thing? It 's enough already.”
Her remark wasn’t a review of Flanagan’s movie or a swipe at Scarlett Johansson ; it was about Hollywood ’s never-ending appetite for another possession. The rest of the interview stayed upbeat: Burstyn discussed Poetry Says It Better, the audiobook she narrates as a possible path to a long-shot EGOT (she already has an Oscar, a Tony and two Emmys) — a project her granddaughter encouraged.
Flanagan’s new chapter
The Exorcist: Martyrs is written and directed by Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep) for Universal, with a story that steers away from 2023’s Believer. At New York Comic Con, Flanagan said he’s taking the franchise in a new direction, blending a serial-killer investigation with supernatural horror. Early promo footage reportedly features a church massacre and a bleak, methodical case.
- Scarlett Johansson — Julie Miller, a New York detective
- Jacobi Jupe — Max, Julie’s son
- Chiwetel Ejiofor — a former prison chaplain
- Sasha Calle — Julie’s rookie partner
- Diane Lane — Julie’s mother
- Laurence Fishburne — a priest
- John Leguizamo — Father Sunday
Johansson’s Julie is still haunted by a satanic serial-killer case she closed 13 years earlier when a new murder drags her back into a conspiracy that spans generations. As the investigation deepens, a hostile presence edges closer to her son, Max.
The Exorcist: Martyrs is set to hit theaters on March 12, 2027 .