The Exorcist: Believer director reveals the backstory behind that final twist

Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Exorcist: Believer.

So, it turns out Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn isn't the only actress from 1973's The Exorcist who was compelled to appear in the just-released continuation, The Exorcist: Believer.

The latest franchise sequel also features a cameo from Linda Blair, who played the possessed Regan, the daughter of Burstyn's Chris MacNeil in William Friedkin's original film. Blair hasn't portrayed the character since 1977's poorly received Exorcist II: The Heretic and, in the course of Believer, the movie's malevolent demon tells Chris that her daughter is dead. Then, at the end, Blair's character appears to reunite with her badly hurt mother.

The Exorcist: Believer director David Gordon Green had previously spoken to EW about how he recruited Blair to act as a consultant on the film and help make sure that young actresses Lidya Jewett and Olivia Neill were treated in an appropriate fashion. The filmmaker now reveals that he did not think that would lead to her appearing on screen.

"I never thought she would do it," Green says. "She has a very passionate life protecting dogs at a rescue center in California, and she has, for the most part, stepped away from acting. I reached out to her originally just to say, 'I'm going to be the steward of this title. You are an important legacy figure of this franchise. I need to know you.'" In a jokey manner, he asked her, "Would you be my friend?"

The two met and became friends after a lengthy chat. The next phase was getting the horror icon to be an advisor on the movie, which follows the efforts of Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) to rid his daughter Angela (Jewett) and her friend Katherine (O'Neill) of demonic possession with the aid of Chris MacNeil. "She read the script and gave me her thoughts on how to go about accessing a degree of intimacy, of darkness, of complexity within these two amazing performers, Lydia and Olivia," Green continues. "She helped us walk those tightropes, and then we started having fun."

The filmmaker explains how his connection with Blair led her to reprising the role of Regan in the scene with Burstyn, which was filmed in Savannah, Ga. before Green made last year's Halloween Ends. "Linda was out there, and she hadn't seen Ellen in many, many years," the director recalls. "The beauty of the scene, to me, is that there were maybe five people in the world that knew what was about to happen."

The code word for the scene on the call sheet was "Bartholomew," which threw even the assistant director for a loop as they were shooting other scenes in a hospital with Odom and Burstyn. "It was never in the script," Green reveals of Blair's cameo. "I told Ellen that Linda had agreed to do this, and they were going to be reunited. It was just something that felt right, and Linda felt comfortable. She walked in, and the moment was shared by the dropped jaws of the crew. The camera operator was crying, didn't know what was happening! The moment that you see Linda take a knee and take her hand is the first time they'd communicated in many, many years. It was the first take."

Green says they filmed another take "just for s---s and giggles" and "to protect ourselves" in case they needed an alternate shot, "but never even looked at it in the editing room," he admits. "It worked out as just one of those emotional, magical, artistically satisfying, kind of unexplainable moments of my career."

Blair's cameo inevitably raises the question of whether Regan will return in either or both of the two other Exorcist movies that Green is planning to make, starting with The Exorcist: Deceiver, which is set for release in April 2025. The director says that he has spoken with the actress about the possibility, but Blair just laughs. "I don't know what that means," he says of her reaction. "So, I'm not sure. I mean, I know we had a good time, I know she speaks very highly of the experience, and I've got infinite ideas of where we could go."

The Exorcist: Believer is currently playing in theaters.

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