The Exorcist: Martyrs Trailer: Scarlett Johansson vs Legion

By AYC Editorial Desk 3 min read

The Exorcist: Martyrs trailer is out, and it goes straight for the throat. Universal Pictures dropped the full trailer on Friday, October 9, 2026. A short teaser had landed three days earlier, on the evening of October 6. Mike Flanagan writes and directs. Scarlett Johansson plays a New York detective with a very bad history.

Halloween is three weeks away, so the timing couldn’t be better. And no, this isn’t a follow-up to The Exorcist: Believer. Universal revealed the new title on October 6. TheWrap reports the film has no connection to the 2023 movie.

After the beating Believer took from critics, a clean slate feels like the smart move.

What The Exorcist: Martyrs trailer shows

Going by ComicBookMovie’s breakdown, Johansson’s Julie Miller watches serial killer Father Sunday (John Leguizamo) face execution. It does not go according to plan. After that, the killings creep closer to her mother and her young son. The trailer confirms an exorcism, and someone mentions Legion.

SlashFilm points to a moment where Father Sunday is about to get a lethal injection. It also says the trailer seems to borrow its style from The Exorcist III. Its critic finds one idea a bit hokey: the hint that demons possessed some of history’s famous serial killers.

Fair. But a gritty cop procedural wearing an Exorcist skin? We’re curious, not scared off.

The teaser went for pure mood. Dread Central describes a woman looming at the top of a staircase, a clear echo of the original film. There’s also a priest inside a huge church, Leguizamo strapped to an execution table and someone upside down in a bedroom. The eerie score reminded the outlet of the old Alien trailer.

The Exorcist: Martyrs cast and crew

The core cast, per ComicBookMovie:

  • Scarlett Johansson as Det. Julie Miller
  • John Leguizamo as Father Sunday
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor as Father William
  • Sasha Calle as rookie Det. Gina Restrepo
  • Diane Lane as Mary, Julie’s mother
  • Laurence Fishburne as a mysterious priest
  • Jacobi Jupe as Julie’s young son

The wider cast lists also name Carla Gugino, Hamish Linklater and Carl Lumbly. Rahul Kohli, Kate Siegel, Samantha Sloyan and John Gallagher Jr. are in there too.

Behind the camera, Blumhouse, Atomic Monster and Morgan Creek Entertainment produce with Red Room Pictures. Flanagan, Jason Blum and David Robinson serve as producers. Flanagan calls the film “a story within the Exorcist universe that has not been told before.” That’s a big claim for a franchise this old.

The Exorcist: Martyrs story and release date

Here’s the official setup. Thirteen years ago, Julie ended Father Sunday’s reign of terror. Now a new killer writes her name in an altar boy’s blood, deep in a church crypt. With Father William and Gina, she traces a line of serial killers that includes H.H. Holmes and the Zodiac. That line now threatens everyone she loves.

Fans already have a theory. Some think Julie could be Julie Kinderman, daughter of Lt. William Kinderman from The Exorcist III. The trailer doesn’t confirm anything, so treat it as gossip for now.

TheWrap, SlashFilm and Dread Central all report a US theatrical release on March 12, 2027. There’s no India release date yet, and we won’t guess one.

Need more Halloween-season scares while you wait? Our Scream 7 final trailer breakdown and Final Destination Bloodlines trailer review should do the job.

Our early verdict? If the film is as nasty as The Exorcist: Martyrs trailer suggests, the franchise gets its spine back. Paisa vasool ya time waste? Ask us in March.