‘Blair Witch’s Heather Donahue Says She’s “Not Participating” In Reboot

After more than 25 years of reluctantly being the face of the franchise, the actress formerly known as Heather Donahue is prioritizing her image over a Blair Witch return.

With a reimagining in the works at Lionsgate and Blumhouse, Donahue (who currently goes by Rei Hance) explained why she is “not participating” in the Dylan Clark-helmed update on the 1999 found-footage classic, The Blair Witch Project, which launched the horror subgenre into the mainstream.

“There seems to be some willful confusion about my involvement with the reboot,” she wrote in a Facebook comment, responding to a recent interview with producer James Wan. “I want to clarify that I am not participating.”

Donahue added, “I was offered an agreement that, for me personally, raised difficult long-term questions about rights, future technological use of identity and voice, the ability to speak freely, and compensation. Ultimately, it just wasn’t something I felt comfortable signing. I genuinely wish everyone involved well. But preserving my autonomy mattered more to me.”

During a recent interview, Wan seemed to allude that Donahue was joining her co-stars Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard as executive producers, along with the original horror classic’s filmmakers Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale.

“Getting all the original people that were involved in the original Blair Witch, getting their blessing and getting them involved,” Wan told IndieWire. “That was very important for all of us. We wanted to pay respect to the legacy of it all.”

Donahue’s latest comment comes after she, Williams and Leonard called for retroactive and future residual payments from the film franchise that they launched to nearly $250M worldwide on a $60K budget, as well as “meaningful consultation” on any future Blair Witch projects, and for the studio to start a grant for aspiring filmmakers, after the trio said they were not properly compensated for the theatrical hit.

“Our film has now been rebooted twice, both times were a disappointment from a fan/box office/critical perspective,” they said in a statement at the time. “Neither of these films were made with significant creative input from the original team. As the insiders who created the Blair Witch and have been listening to what fans love & want for 25 years, we’re your single greatest, yet thus-far unutilized secret-weapon!”

Following The Blair Witch Project (1999), co-writer/director Joe Berlinger dropped the found-footage format and the original cast for the rushed 2000 sequel Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. In 2016, Lionsgate released the found-footage sequel Blair Witch, using Donahue’s likeness.

After the Lionsgate/Blumhouse update recently headed to the Cannes market, Deadline heard that the plot of the reimagining deals with a family that goes on a camping trip but goes missing one by one after they hear strange noises in the forest. Plans are to shoot this fall.