Scarlett Johansson plays a homicide detective who watches the killer get executed — but the deaths keep coming: Mike Flanagan's 'The Exorcist: Martyrs' drops first teaser

The new 'Exorcist' has finally shown its face. Universal released the first teaser for 'The Exorcist: Martyrs' on Tuesday night (6), a reboot written and directed by Mike Flanagan, the mind behind 'The Haunting of Hill House' and the just-launched 'Carrie' series. It runs only about 15 seconds, but that's enough to chill: a woman looming at the top of a staircase, a direct echo of the 1973 classic, a priest inside a massive church, John Leguizamo strapped to an execution table and, at the end, someone upside down in a bedroom.

Scarlett Johansson plays Julie Miller, an NYPD homicide detective and single mother who catches a serial killer known as Father Sunday (Leguizamo), who stages murders modeled on the martyrdoms of Catholic saints. She witnesses his execution, but the killings don't stop — and they start taking on demonic shapes. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Laurence Fishburne play priests drawn into the story, and the cast also includes Rahul Kohli, Sasha Calle, Diane Lane and Jacobi Jupe.

Flanagan describes the film as a crime procedural with 'Exorcist' horror elements, a standalone story rather than a sequel to 'The Exorcist: Believer' (2023), while noting it still needs to deliver a possession. Produced by Blumhouse, Atomic Monster and Morgan Creek in association with the director's Red Room Pictures, the film hits theaters on March 12, 2027. The full trailer is promised for this Friday (9).