Can 'Exorcist' Film Tie-In Save the Series?

WARNING: This article contains spoilers about Fox's The Exorcist TV series. If you're trying to stay in the dark about the series, read no further.

When Fox announced that it was producing a TV series based on the 1973 film The Exorcist, the announcement encouraged a few questions. First, how would the premise of demon possession, which seems better suited to the format of a feature film, be adapted to an ongoing TV series? Second, would the series be a reboot or a sequel to the film, and if so, how would the two projects be connected?

The first question hasn't yet been satisfactorily answered, but this week the series provided answers to the other two questions. In the series' most recent episode, it was revealed that the mother of the series' demon-possessed child is the grown-up Regan MacNeil, the demon-possessed child in the original film. The character, played by Geena Davis in the series and Linda Blair in the film, is, then, the connection between the two stories, and it makes the series a direct sequel to the film.

It's a welcome development for fans of both the film and the series, but it may have come too late for the series, which is struggling to find an audience. The Exorcist has been one of the weakest performers among new series this fall, and despite generally favorable reactions from critics, it's a prime candidate for cancellation once the network axes begin to fall.