Someone in an executioner hood in The Exorcist: Martyrs NYCC

EXCLUSIVE: Mike Flanagan's The Exorcist: Martyrs may be a standalone tale, but it won't entirely ignore its predecessors.

The horror franchise has undergone a variety of directions since William Friedkin's 1973 classic, including direct sequels to the original, as well as one standalone sequel and two prequels born from the same initial script. Flanagan's is going the way of 1990's Exorcist III, helmed by original author William Peter Blatty, as the story shifts to Scarlett Johansson as an NYPD detective whose past with an executed Satanic serial killer comes back to haunt her.

With its immediate predecessor, David Gordon Green's Believer, acting as a legacy sequel to the original, Flanagan was asked by ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns in an interview for The Exorcist: Martyrs' trailer debut at New York Comic Con where in the timeline his reboot is set. The writer/director confirmed that it's a "contemporary" story, being set "decades after the events of Exorcist III," while teasing that the new film is still "aware" of said sequel.

However, Flanagan clarified that the wider Exorcist timeline and lore is "not really the engine" of Martyrs' plot, with his goal, alongside Blumhouse—Atomic Monster and Morgan Creek Productions being to tell "a whole new story" with "whole new characters" and explore something that "hadn't really existed yet in the lore and in the universe." The filmmaker concluded that while Martyrs "rewards others who are aware" of the franchise's past, it was "very much designed to stand on its own."

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

In many ways, it is immediately apparent that Flanagan's Exorcist: Martyrs is taking things in a very different direction from its predecessors. While having a similar detective story to Blatty's threequel, the first trailer for the film notably kept it under wraps which members of the star-studded roster might find themselves possessed by whatever entity is at the core of the movie. The sole exception is that of John Leguizamo's Father Sunday, who Johansson's character comes to suspect was possessed before being executed.

For the majority of its installments, the Exorcist series generally became known for the fight between a caring parent or parents and the evil looking to take their children's souls. But while Blatty and Friedkin scored a rave reception for their exploration of the concept in the original, the inclusion of an exorcism to save those possessed became more of a focus, which turned into increasingly negative reviews.

Beyond wanting to take things in a different direction, Flanagan's decision to bring Martyrs into the modern-day for The Exorcist's timeline does avoid overcomplicating the franchise's lore. Even though Green's Believer brought back Linda Blair's Regan MacNeil and Ellen Burstyn's Chris, it did largely ignore the events of the previous sequels and prequels, particularly in focusing on a different demon than the iconic Pazuzu.

That being said, with Flanagan teasing that The Exorcist: Martyrs is still "aware" of its prior films, particularly Blatty's threequel, the door certainly seems open for references to be made to other installments. The trailer did seemingly feature a sneaky tease of Johansson's character being connected to George C. Scott's Lieutenant William F. Kinderman from Exorcist III, as the police uniform she wears features the name tag "Kinderman." Given she has the same first name, Julie, as Kinderman's daughter from the original films, Flanagan may have more secret connections in store for his new reboot.

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Exorcist Reboot Timeline Officially Confirmed By Mike Flanagan