Chiwetel Ejiofor's Father William looking upward with his hands in front of him at the front of a chapel in The Exorcist: Martyrs NYCC overlay

EXCLUSIVE: Mike Flanagan didn't fully overlook the past when putting together The Exorcist: Martyrs.

Taking over the iconic horror franchise after Believer's disappointment, Flanagan is shifting the focus to Scarlett Johansson as Julia Miller, an NYPD homicide detective still haunted by the botched execution of a notorious Satanic serial killer some years earlier, only for her new investigation to seemingly point to a continuation of his killings. Unlike the majority of its predecessors, The Exorcist: Martyrs is set to be a standalone story in the series.

However, in an interview with ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns for the film's trailer premiere at New York Comic Con 2026, Mike Flanagan was asked about any prior Exorcist movies having an influence on Martyrs. The writer/director began by confirming that developing the film with Universal, Blumhouse—Atomic Monster and Morgan Creek was "a very collaborative process," with the reboot happening because "the thing I was excited about was the same thing they were excited about":

Mike Flanagan: It wasn't about negotiating two different ideas so much as we were all kind of united behind one idea, and very interested in how we could do something very different. There was a lot less talk about what had come before, which I was actually very excited about, because I think this is one of those franchises that has so many entries, it has covered so much ground that I was very glad they were very excited to go in a completely different direction with it.

As for how the film not only compares to his prior works, but to the wider Exorcist franchise, Flanagan pointed to 1990's Exorcist III as being one of the biggest influences for Martyrs, teasing that "superfans of the series are gonna detect a filament" in his new movie that harkens back to the cult favorite threequel. The filmmaker further praised the previous film for having "what might be the best jump scare in cinema," and subsequently found himself driven to "homage some of that," but clarified that the tone of his new film is "more about a relentless dread" felt by viewers:

Mike Flanagan: There are some visceral scares and some intense action, too, in this movie. That's a little unexpected, but the dread never lets up. It's a movie that has you by the throat, and is squeezing the entire time, and that's a really difficult thing to sustain in performance, in production, and then in post. So yeah, this is not a jump scare factory, but there are some. From what I've been told by people who have seen early cuts as we've tried it out, people do find it terrifying, and that there are several scenes where they're like, "Oh my God, that scare just hit me like a freight train," and that makes me very happy.

Based on William Peter Blatty's 1983 novel of the same name, itself adapted from plans for a film, The Exorcist III ignored the events of its movie predecessor and centered on Georgetown Lieutenant William F. Kinderman, with George C. Scott taking over the role, as he investigated a series of murders seemingly tied to both a thought-to-be-dead serial killer and Regan MacNeil. While not a major hit at the time, the threequel has since gone on to develop a cult following, and is hailed by many as the second-best in the series behind William Friedkin's original.

Scarlett Johansson as Detective Julie Miller walking through a prison amid jeering in The Exorcist Martyrs

Just from the surface, it's immediately apparent how Flanagan's The Exorcist: Martyrs is largely influenced by Blatty's 1990 film, the most notable thread being the detective mystery driving the plot. The horror filmmaker has also previously teased that both Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs are a big point of inspiration for the new reboot, certainly evidenced by the darker lighting of the film to give it a grittier feel akin to the David Fincher classic.

With the confirmation that The Exorcist III has a key point of influence on Martyrs, this does further point to Flanagan's movie being a proper standalone story. This would prove an interesting first for the franchise, as every previous installment, including Blatty's threequel, has featured some form of connection to the original movie, with David Gordon Green's Believer, in particular, being a legacy sequel directly tied to the first Exorcist that also featured the returns of Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil and Linda Blair as Regan.

Considering the underwhelming response to Believer, Flanagan's decision to primarily have looked at Exorcist III in lieu of the other films when developing The Exorcist: Martyrs should bode well for fans of the franchise. Moreover, his tease of early test screenings getting "freight train"-level reactions from viewers, the writer/director's goal to deliver the scariest film he's ever made could very well prove true.

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Mike Flanagan Confirms Exorcist Movie Inspiration For "Complete Different" Martyrs Reboot