The first images from Mike Flanagan’s The Exorcist: Martyrs are here, and Scarlett Johansson looks like she has seen something she cannot unsee. The newly released set photos show Johansson filming in New York City alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and John Leguizamo, and the vibe is immediately tense, grounded, and deeply unsettling in all the right ways.
In one shot, Johansson walks down an outdoor stairwell with Ejiofor. In another, she leans against a car looking exhausted and afraid. A third captures her in conversation with Ejiofor while Sasha Calle lingers in the background. There is no green screen. No CGI demon peeking around the corner. Just actors looking genuinely disturbed in ordinary locations, which is exactly how Flanagan builds dread better than almost anyone working in horror today.
Johansson plays a mother whose son, played by Jacobi Jupe, becomes the target of a supernatural force. Ejiofor plays an ex-con turned priest. Leguizamo may be playing an antagonist, though plot details are locked down tighter than a confessional booth. The cast also includes Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, and a small army of Flanagan regulars: Carla Gugino, Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Samantha Sloyan, and Robert Longstreet. If you have watched any Flanagan project, you recognize at least half these names.
Flanagan is writing, directing, and producing through his Red Room Pictures banner, with Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, and Morgan Creek backing the project. Universal has set a March 12, 2027 release date. The film is not a sequel to The Exorcist: Believer, which underperformed and killed Universal’s planned trilogy before it could even get started. Instead, Martyrs tells an all-new story set in the Exorcist universe, giving Flanagan room to do what he does best: slow-burn horror that destroys you emotionally before the monster even shows up.
The set photos are notable for how normal everything looks. Johansson is in jeans and a red button-up. Ejiofor wears a gray coat. There are police officer extras and yellow tape. It looks like a crime drama until you remember this is an Exorcist movie, and Flanagan has already called it “the scariest movie I’ve ever made.” That is a bold claim from the guy who made The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and Doctor Sleep.
Will Martyrs redeem a franchise that Believer nearly killed? The cast suggests yes. The director suggests absolutely. And the fact that Johansson is doing horror at all, after two decades of blockbusters and prestige dramas, suggests she sees something special in this script. March 2027 cannot come fast enough.
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