Fans have been waiting for a long time for Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell to return to The Evil Dead universe since the end of 1992’s Army of Darkness. Bruce Campbell’s reluctant hero Ashley J. Williams, also known as Ash, has become popular amongst the cult audience for his quippy one liners, and Campbell’s famous over acting.
But as the years went on, and projects like Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash fell by the wayside (which thankfully was turned into a comic after the film failed to materialize), hope for seeing Ash return seemed dim.
But after 2013’s, which Campbell and Raimi both produced, hope began to ignite again. Ash cameoed in the film’s after credits sequence, which began getting fans talking about the possible return of the famed Deadite slayer.
Talk then emerged that Raimi and Campbell were working on Army of Darkness 2, and it would co-exist alongside the new film series, with an eventual crossover film uniting Campbell’s Ash with Jane Levy’s Mia. As the talk continued, Campbell would tease fans that something was coming, but then would cool fans hopes saying it was nothing. But at San Diego Comic Con 2014, everything changed when Raimi and Campbell announced a new TV series would happening, and in January, we learned that Starz would be moving forward with Ash vs. Evil Dead, for a Fall 2015 release.
Now, the pieces are beginning to fall into place, as the cast of the ten episode season one is being locked down. Ray Santiago and Dana Delorenzo joined the last month, and now we have a new player as Luce Lawless will reunited with Bruce Campbell in the series. Lawless is set to play Ruby, “a mysterious figure who is myopic in her quest to hunt down the source of the recent Evil outbreaks. The only problem? She believes that Ash is the cause of it all.”
It sounds like a great role for Lawless, who also guest starred in the first episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2, and is best known for her role as Xena in the Hercules spin-off, Xena: Warrior Princess, produced by longtime Campbell collaborator, and The Evil Dead creator, Sam Raimi. Campbell would guest star with Lawless throughout the series all the way until the show’s end, so it’s great to see them reuniting here.
The cast of the series is incredibly exciting so far, and it’s great to see Raimi, who is directing the show’s first episode, really going all out to bring Ash and the Evil Dead universe back in a big way for fans. After years of waiting, to get a ten episode cable series is something we could have only dreamed of, and it’s great to see something like this coming to fruition without fans having to back a Kickstarter for the project. It’s rare that voices of the fans can be heard so overtly, and I’m glad to say that Raimi and Campbell clearly listened.
Ash vs. Evil Dead does not currently have a start date, but is looking to premiere on Starz sometime later in 2015.
Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons–personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its ‘Evil’ grip.