The Exorcist: Believer release moves to an earlier date, avoiding Taylor Swift competition

13 is an important number to musician Taylor Swift. She considers it to be her lucky number. As she has said, “I was born on the 13th, I turned 13 on Friday the 13th, my first album went gold in 13 weeks. Also, my first song that ever went number 1, it had a 13 second intro, I didn’t even do that on purpose!” She had more examples to give, but the point is – when it was announced this morning that her concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is going to reach theatres nationwide on Friday, October 13th, it totally made sense. And now, in response to that announcement, Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and Morgan Creek Entertainment have decided to move their film The Exorcist: Believer forward one week from its October 13th release date to avoid having to compete with Taylor Swift on its opening weeked. The Exorcist: Believer will now reach theatres on October 6th.

Director David Gordon Green recently finished working on a trilogy of Halloween sequels for Universal and Blumhouse that consisted of Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends. Now he’s working with the companies on a trilogy of sequels to the 1973 classic The Exorcist (watch it HERE) that begins with Believer. Green crafted the story for the film with Danny McBride (who wrote all three of the new Halloweens with him) and their Halloween Kills co-writer Scott Teems, then wrote the screenplay with Peter Sattler (Broken Diamonds). Here’s the synopsis: Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding has raised their daughter on his own. But when Angela and her friend Katherine, disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.

Ellen Burstyn reprises the role of Chris MacNeil, the character she played in The Exorcist, “an actress who has been forever altered by what happened to her daughter Regan five decades before.” Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) plays Victor Fielding, with Lidya Jewett (Nightbooks) as Angela and newcomer Olivia Marcum as her friend Katherine. Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale) plays Victor and Angela’s neighbor, and Jennifer Nettles (The Righteous Gemstones) and Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon) play Katherine’s parents.

Okwui Okpokwasili (Master) is also in the cast, playing an unspecified role, and Raphael Sbarge (Carnosaur) plays a pastor. Original The Exorcist star Linda Blair is in there as well, reprising the role of Chris MacNeil’s daughter Regan.

The Exorcist: Believer is being produced by Jason Blum, David Robinson, and James Robinson. Green, Danny McBride, Stephanie Allain, and Couper Samuelson serve as executive producers. Ryan Turek is overseeing the project for Blumhouse. Blum is the one who confirmed the new release date.

Universal and Peacock forked over an amount somewhere in the range of $400 million to acquire the rights to distribute this trilogy, so you can understand why they’re trying to avoid competition. That’s a lot of money to recoup. It has already been announced that the next sequel, titled The Exorcist: Deceiver, will be reaching theatres on April 18, 2025.

Are you looking forward to The Exorcist: Believer, and are you glad to hear that it’s going to be released a week earlier? Let us know by leaving a comment below.