Will FOX #RenewTheExorcist?

The debut season of “The Exorcist” came to a close this past Friday night, wrapping up the main storyline in satisfying fashion and hinting at what lies ahead for characters like Marcus, Tomas, and the Rance family. After decades of torment, Regan MacNeil/Angela Rance finally killed the demon Pazuzu with the help of Tomas, allowing the Rance family to (hopefully) live out the rest of their days in peace. Also in the finale, a heroic Father Marcus thwarted the attempt to assassinate Pope Sebastian, agreeing in the end to partner up with Tomas to continue the battle against evil.

Where does the show go from here? We asked “The Exorcist” creator Jeremy Slater that very question in the wake of the finale, and he provided us with the exclusive first details about Season 2. Of course, it’s entirely possible that FOX won’t even renew the series for a second season, but like the rest of us, Slater is hopeful that they will… and he’s already begun the planning process.

If “The Exorcist” gets renewed, we will be meeting a whole new family. Slater explains:

A potential season two would find Marcus, Tomas and Bennett tasked with helping a new family or a new case of possession. That doesn’t mean we’ll never see any of the Rances again, but I think the fans would feel disappointed and cheated if we simply brought Captain Howdy back for round three. The Rances have escaped this legacy of terror–for the time being, anyway–and it seems cruel to immediately drag them back for ten more episodes of suffering. Our challenge now is to create a new family that you care about just as much as the Rances, and to find ways to make their story feel just as compelling and unique as what came before.

What about all the corruption in the church? Slater says we’ll be seeing more of that:

We would always continue to expand our mythology moving forward. We know that Maria Walters and Superintendent Jaffey and Cardinal Guillot are still out there somewhere, but I think the conspiracy probably runs much deeper than that. When we left our heroes at the end of the first season, they were part of only a handful of people on the planet that know this conspiracy is taking place, that evil is infiltrating every level of church and state. Going forward, I think that sense of paranoia and never quite knowing who to trust will become a much bigger component in the show. We’ve established a fun little dynamic where Tomas and Bennett are essentially now acting as moles within the Catholic church, trying to uncover just how deep this corruption has spread, while Marcus is the wild card operating outside the boundaries of the church. The goal would be to balance these personal, character-based stories with the larger mythology elements we’ve introduced, to create a world where no one and nothing is ever truly safe.

So come on, FOX. Give us what we want. #RenewTheExorcist!