Back in 2018, Blumhouse and director David Gordon Green had great success rebooting the long-running “Halloween” film franchise with a movie frustratingly just called “Halloween.” The 2018 “Halloween” ignored every other sequel to come after John Carpenter’s 1978 original, taking place in a world where Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) was not the sister of Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney), and where Michael had been languishing in a mental institution for 40 years. That film spawned two sequels in its own miniature continuity, “Halloween Kills” in 2021 and “Halloween Ends” in 2022.
Blumhouse and Green were clearly hoping that lightning could strike twice, as Jason Blum infamously purchased the rights to “The Exorcist” in 2021 for $400 million. The plan was for Green to direct another reboot trilogy that also ignored all the extant sequels to date, catching up with the characters from the first film decades later. Sadly, the first film in this proposed trilogy, called “The Exorcist: Believer,” was a box office disappointment, and was widely panned by critics. The two planned sequels were almost immediately scrapped, and Blumhouse pivoted to another reboot from Mike Flanagan, currently scheduled for release in 2026.
“The Exorcist: Believer” wasn’t good, but it did do some heavy lifting to connect its events to previous movies. When the film’s main characters need information about a local exorcism, they turn to Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) from the first film. Chris was seen as an expert, as she had written several books about the demonic possession of her daughter Regan (Linda Blair) in 1973. The books were personal, however, and alienated Regan. The pair hadn’t spoken in years.
Until the film’s final scene, where Regan comes to visit Chris in the hospital. /Film previously reported that Blair was already onset at an advisor, but a further 2023 interview with NBC Insider explained more in-depth how she parlayed her presence into a full-blown cameo.
Linda Blair’s Exorcist: Believer cameo was a last-minute decision
“The Exorcist: Believer” upped the stakes of the first film by depicting not one, but two simultaneous demon possessions. Set in Georgia, two young girls wander out into the woods together looking for ghostly things and go missing for several days. When they return, they are … altered. They both begin exhibiting symptoms of demon possession, and one of their fathers (Leslie Odom, Jr.) is told to seek Chris MacNeil’s aid. Naturally, she recommends a proper exorcism. While Catholic priests typically examine demons in movies, “Believer” invites a multi-religious panoply of ministers and pastors to perform the exorcism.
Blair was on set to advise the young “possessed” actresses (Lidya Jewett and Olivia O’Neill), as her own experience playing Regan in 1973 was somewhat harrowing; the role required a lot of violence and self-mutilation. She wanted to ensure that the two young actresses felt safe at all times and shared her own experiences. She also said she helped with the script, saying:
“[They said to me] ‘We understand you don’t really want to be part of it, but we’d love your blessing.’ And I’m like, ‘Absolutely.’ I ended up coming on, as everyone knows, as the advisor, helping with the girls. It is a very, very difficult journey and I wanted to make sure they were taken care of. I [also] helped do some story background, change some things up.”
According to NBC Insider, though, Blair wasn’t asked to appear on camera until very late in the shoot. She wasn’t initially interested in playing Regan MacNeil again. After working on the set for a few weeks, however, she and Green decided that it would be okay. She continued:
“We put it together and hoped that it would put a big smile on people’s faces, and I think it did. So for that, it’s all worth it. If we’ve got an expert/fan, we can even discuss if the cameo should have happened in the first place.”
These days, Blair spends more time running her animal charity, the Linda Blair Worldheart Foundation, than she does acting.
