Russell Crowe Gets Sequel To Fan-Favorite Movie
The nice thing about horror films is that they can often be made on small budgets, which means we get sequels even if they don’t make blockbuster amounts of money. That seems to be the case with Russell Crowe’s surprise 2023 hit The Pope’s Exorcist, which brought in $77 million at the global box office against a budget of $18 million. That return was enough for production company Screen Gems to get a sequel underway, as The Pope’s Exorcist 2 is being developed.
The Pope’s Exorcist 2 Is Happening
Producer Jeff Katz took to social media to announce the news of The Pope’s Exorcist 2. Katz addressed “Amorth Nation,” saying, “I just got the call. It’s officially happening.”
The Pope’s Exorcist stars Russell Crowe as real-life exorcist Gabriele Amorth and is based on the books An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories by Amorth himself. As the name might imply, Crowe’s Amorth is the Pope’s exorcist, a down-to-earth and good-humored man who rides his scooter about Italy to rid people of demonic possessions. Crowe previously pointed out that a trilogy was planned for the film, so it’s not too surprising that The Pope’s Exorcist 2 is happening, especially with the money the first one made.
The Scooter Will Be Back
If Russell Crowe is willing and The Pope’s Exorcist 2 is as big of a hit as the first film, this could become a full-on horror franchise. In the same interview where he talked about the potential trilogy, Crowe pointed out that Amorth wrote twelve books. Since the first film was based on two of Amorth’s books, then there is more than enough material to make movies beyond a trilogy.
The Pope’s Exorcist Was A Surprise Hit
While The Pope’s Exorcist was a financial sleeper hit, the film didn’t exactly blow critics out of the water. The movie is a bit by the numbers, but Russell Crowe’s extremely charismatic and entertaining performance as Amorth makes it worth the watch. Crowe could easily carry this same energy over to The Pope’s Exorcist 2 to recreate the first movie’s success, even if the actual film surrounding Crowe ends up being middling again.
No Word On Who Else Is Returning
Outside of Russell Crowe’s involvement and Jeff Katz returning as producer, it’s unclear if the rest of the crew will return for The Pope’s Exorcist 2. Julius Avery directed the first film from a screenplay by Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos. While it seems likely that the producers would want to bring everyone back together to ensure the same success formula, it’s always possible they could switch things up.
Russell Crowe Needs To Keep The Accent
Along with Russell Crowe, The Pope’s Exorcist starred Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, and Franco Nero. We can probably expect to see some of them also return for The Pope’s Exorcist 2. In any case, the film was just confirmed to be underway, so we’ll hear more about it soon enough.
In the meantime, stay tuned, and we’ll keep you updated on anything we hear about The Pope’s Exorcist 2. Interestingly enough, we can look forward to seeing Russell Crowe in another exorcist-related film much sooner. Crowe is starring in the upcoming film The Exorcism, which comes out on June 21.
