'The Pope's Exorcist' Sequel? Russell Crowe Still Wants to Do It

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I’m not going to sit here and pretend like The Pope’s Exorcist was a “great” movie. I’m not usually into exorcism films, for starters. And it’s full of problems. But star Russell Crowe (pictured in the film above) was not one of them. Just thinking of him decked out in his priest gear while riding a Vespa…I can’t help but smile. Crowe is by far the shining light of that movie. If there’s going to be a sequel, he needs to come back. The good news is, it sounds like he would if given the chance.

We already knew a sequel was in development. But we haven’t heard anything on the project for a couple of years. Crowe finally changed that while speaking to ScreenRant recently. He was asked about never having returned to a sequel to one of his films, saying, “It definitely was conscious for the first 20 or 30 years because I grew up in an era where a sequel was always a really bad version of the first one, where the same thoughts and processes and love and focus and attention hadn’t been paid. They were just looking at it as a financial situation: ‘The brand is out there. There’s an audience for it. Make another one.’ So it was always negative, but that’s since changed dramatically, where some of the sequels have gone on to be iconic or legendary over and above the original film. So, yeah, I’m not as closed to it now as I was.”

Continued Crowe, “There are certain characters where I’ve been approached about a sequel, like Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist. They want to do another one of those, and that’s such a rich character who wrote 12 books about his experiences, and we’ve only just scratched the surface. So that would be interesting to do.“

So, while this doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that The Pope’s Exorcist sequel is happening imminently, it does at least suggest that Crowe will be ready to sign on once it gets moving. If it gets moving.

Honestly, I’m a little surprised we haven’t heard much to this point. After amassing $77 million worldwide on a modest $18 million budget, The Pope’s Exorcist sequel was almost immediately greenlit. And, as the outlet notes, Crowe even teased plans for a trilogy of films…just before a change of executives at Screen Gems and Sony. We know how that story goes…and it doesn’t usually end well for projects in development.

Still, there’s hope for Pope’s Exorcist fans yet. Movie gods, hear our prayers.