Over the past fortnight, avid TV viewers have had but three questions on their minds: what’s new? What’s renewed? And what’s been scrapped entirely?
Ash Vs. Evil Dead and Syfy’s Tremors pilot were among the first to fall, with Brooklyn Nine-Nine being the rare exception of a series that finds new life on another network – the ensemble comedy landed at NBC after Fox decided to pull the plug. And as Jeremy Slater knows all too well, the 99 weren’t the only ones affected by Fox’s shake-up.
As we reported this past weekend, the network canned The Exorcist after just two seasons, driving a stake through the heart of Slater’s supernatural drama. Alas, it seems the show’s fate has been sealed, with nary a mention of a possible revival on another network a la Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
That’s disappointing, then, particularly when you consider that Jeremy Slater had drawn up tentative plans for The Exorcist season 3 that would’ve borrowed cues from Memento, Christopher Nolan’s psychological thriller celebrated for its handling of memory, time, and our fragile grasp on both.
“I knew that, by necessity, Marcus and Tomas would need to be separated for the first half of the season, because we would need to address the time jump that happened in the closing moments of the S2 finale,” said Slater. “And I knew that I wanted Father Bennett (who became integrated with a demon in the finale) to serve as our new Big Bad. So my guess is that we would have been juggling two separate timelines for at least the first half of season three.”
That’s a pretty ambitious pitch, as it would have crowned the demonic Bennett as season 3’s chief antagonist. And it doesn’t stop there…
“In the flashback storyline, Tomas and Mouse would have joined forces with Bennett and headed for Rome, unaware that their former friend had crossed over to the other side. And in the present, Marcus would be searching for some sign of Tomas, who has seemingly vanished without a trace. I’m not sure whether we would have had a central “family” storyline or whether the season would have ultimately revolved around Marcus, Tomas and Mouse attempting to save Bennett’s soul, although it probably would have been some combination of the two. But the idea of doing a Memento-style season filled with puzzles and mysteries felt like a nice change of pace from a creative standpoint.”
Sadly, Slater admits that it’s unlikely that The Exorcist will be picked up by any of the major streaming services – namely Netflix, Amazon and/or Hulu – meaning Fox’s supernatural drama may well be two seasons and out.
That being said, the show’s creator is keeping a number of story ideas in the bank, just in case…
“I had a few more twists and ideas for the season, but I’m keeping those to myself just on the off-chance that the show finds another home. I think it’s a longshot. But we’ve been dead in the water once before, so never say never.” he told us. “If that happened, I’d be kicking myself for giving away all of our twists and secrets.
But the bigger reason [why I don’t have much to share] is that these stories really only come together and take shape once you’ve got a full writers room bouncing around ideas. By the time I started breaking our finale last year, our writers room had already basically disbanded. We barely had time to finish season two, let alone brainstorm ideas for season three.”
So, at least for now, The Exorcist has been banished from the TV realms, though we’re still praying for a possible revival.