“Exorcist: Believer” Director Reveals How He Convinced Ellen Burstyn to Return to Franchise (Exclusive)

With Ellen Burstyn playing Chris MacNeil for the first time since 1973, 'The Exorcist: Believer' releases in theaters Oct. 6

The Exorcist: Believer director David Gordon Green is revealing how he persuaded Ellen Burstyn to return to the beloved horror franchise.

Burstyn, 90, starred as Chris MacNeil in the 1973 original, which earned her an Oscar nomination. She's now back 50 years later to reprise the role in a direct sequel to the original, directed and co-written by Green (Halloween Ends).

Green, 48, says that he started recruiting the horror icon to return for Believer "before she read the script."

"It was in the early stages of writing and regardless of any ambition of a collaboration, I wanted to introduce myself and say, 'I'm stepping into a legacy of a franchise that you're a monumental part of, and I want you to know who I am and I want you to know I'm here to respect this property and the IP and the character that you created,' " Green tells PEOPLE.

"And so then that was a few phone calls when I introduced the idea of what I would like to do with Chris MacNeil and how I'd like to reintroduce that character," he adds. "And she's obviously very skeptical at this point because people have asked her dozens of times to step back into the franchise."

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The Exorcist: Believer follows Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.), a single father whose daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) and friend disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them. Seeking answers, Victor seeks out MacNeil, who's been forever altered by what happened to her daughter fifty years ago.

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Green says that as he and Burstyn circled the idea of her return, "she got a kick out of my strange sense of humor and conversations went from everything from movies to self-help to places in the world that meant something to us."

Related: ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ Trailer Sees Ellen Burstyn Return to Save Two Demonic Girls

"And so when she read the draft of the script and saw the intentions that I had, she realized that it kind of mirrored in some ways her journey on this earth post success of the film The Exorcist — the world I'm trying to create with the Chris MacNeil character after the events in Georgetown," he tells PEOPLE. "So there was a familiarity to it."

Green also promises more Exorcist sequels are on the way, telling PEOPLE: "I've got a trilogy designed and we'll see how far I can take it."

The Exorcist: Believer releases in theaters Oct. 6. Above, watch a video teasing Burstyn's return to The Exorcist franchise.

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