The upcoming reboot of The Exorcist has seen another casting addition, with a one-time Marvel actress joining what is intended to be a trilogy.
David Gordon Green, fresh off the minor successes of his Halloween trilogy, is now busy on rebooting potentially the greatest horror film ever. According to Deadline he can call on Lidya Jewett as part of his cast, who played the young Nakia in 2018’s blockbuster Black Panther. Jewett has had few major film roles, but the 16 year-old carries with her pedigree from Hidden Figures.
Jewett was a mainstay of the NBC comedy Good Girls, in which she appeared in 50 episodes alongside the likes of Christina Hendricks, Retta, and Mae Whitman. The Exorcist won’t be Jewett’s first foray into the supernatural, with her previously playing one of the leads of Netflix original film Nightbooks.
Very little is known about Green’s plans for his trilogy of Exorcist stories. Original director William Friedkin was completely snubbed from having any involvement in the new series, which did little to sway fan opinion. Green’s Halloween trilogy ended with a middling whimper, although worth noting is he took a massive risk in the threequel – which he seemed to know wouldn’t end well.
The currently untitled Exorcist reboot will see Glass Onion’s Leslie Odom Jr. in the lead role, sharing the screen with Ann Dowd and returning series veteran Ellen Burstyn. The inclusion of Burstyn does hint the series will follow on in the canon of the original films, which is one of the few exciting pieces of this puzzle.
The Exorcist is set to haunt cinemas from Oct. 13, 2023 — which is indeed a Friday the 13th.