The Exorcist (film series) was refilmed by director Renny Harlin. However, Schrader's version received a limited release in 2005, after Harlin's, and was titled "". On January 22, 2016, 20th Century Fox Television announced they were developing a television series of "The Exorcist". It premiered on September 23, 2016. Based on the 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty, "The Exorcist" marries three scenarios into one plot. The film opens with Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) on an archaeological dig in Al-hadar, near Nineveh, in Iraq. He is alerted that a small carving is found in the dig, resembling a grimacing, bestial creature. After talking
Exorcist II: The Heretic with flashbacks in "Exorcist II". Although this same exorcism becomes the central plot line for the most recent "Exorcist" movies "" and "", little effort was made to keep the stories consistent. The boy is not named Kokumo, and the locations and circumstances of the exorcism do not resemble "Exorcist II: The Heretic" even remotely. Ultimately it is revealed from "Exorcist: The Beginning" that the African boy is not the one actually afflicted; it turns out to be another character entirely that is possessed. However, "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist" does show the African boy being the person who was