Lankester Merrin


Father Lankester Merrin is a fictional character in the novel The Exorcist, one of the two main protagonists in the 1973 film adaptation, and several prequel and sequel films.

In the novel

Merrin, an elderly priest and paleontologist on an archeological dig in Iraq, finds images of the demon Pazuzu and subsequently experiences other unusual phenomena. He had previously faced the demon many years before during an exorcism in Africa. The find sparks a premonition that he will battle the demon again in a distant land. Merrin does not appear again until much later in the novel, when he joins the protagonist, Father Damien Karras, in Washington, D.C. to exorcise the demon from the body of a young girl. Merrin, who has a heart condition for which he takes nitroglycerin, dies during the ritual, leaving the inexperienced Karras to complete the exorcism himself.

In the films

Merrin's depiction in the 1973 film The Exorcist is faithful to the novel. The character of Merrin reappears in the sequel ', in extended flashbacks detailing an exorcism he performed in Africa following the Second World War. He is portrayed in both films by Max von Sydow. The studio wanted Marlon Brando for the role of Father Merrin, but director William Friedkin immediately vetoed this by stating it would become a "Brando movie".
The character was featured again in both prequel films, ' and . Both films revisit Merrin's experiences in Africa immediately prior to his first exorcism, but each presents a different version of the events and neither agrees with the events as presented in Exorcist II. He is played in both films by Stellan Skarsgård.

Other adaptations

In the 2014 BBC Radio dramatisation, Merrin is voiced by Ian McDiarmid.