Stephen King had a big hand in launching the Hollywood career of Bruce Campbell. After all, he was not only one of the first big names to highlight the genius of director Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (writing a pre-release article about it for Twilight Zone Magazine), but he also had a key role in the development of Evil Dead II. King has been a fan of his fellow genre legend for decades now, which is why it is not at all surprising that he would have an outraged reaction to the beloved actor openly – albeit comedically – considering retirement.
It was on this day in 1958 that Bruce Campbell was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, and this being his 65th birthday inspired the actor to post a message on his personal Twitter page about possibly saying goodbye to showbusiness. Uploading a photo of Ash Williams from the horrific and awesome TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead, Campbell wrote, "Okay, so I’m 65 today. Time to retire, I guess. Thanks for watching!" But Stephen King responded with a Quote Tweet suggesting that the actor/producer not even joke about the idea:
DON'T YOU DARE! https://t.co/ZSxxgUcca7June 22, 2023
To be fair, Stephen King has previously considered retirement himself, but his passion for writing has ceased to let him say goodbye to his craft. Between his novels, non-fiction, and collections, he has written over 80 books during the course of his career, and at the age of 75 he will have his latest – titled Holly – in stores this fall.
The best news of all here is that Bruce Campbell's message about retirement reads like a joke, as it would be a blow to pop culture if we were to never get to see him pop up in movies or TV again given that he is one of cinematic horror's great icons. He's recently been playing around in the Evil Dead universe again (he has an uncredited voice-only role in Evil Dead Rise and reprises Ash Williams in 2022's Evil Dead: The Game), and last year he reunited with Sam Raimi for a cameo in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness.
It's a good thing that Campbell isn't retiring, as there us still a lot that he can do as an actor – potentially including a Stephen King adaptation. Despite his career being linked to King's name from the jump, he has never been in a King movie or TV show, and that's a situation that needs to be rectified. Sam Raimi has suggested that he'd be game to develop one of the author's books at some point in the future, so perhaps his #1 star can join in on the fun. It would be an amazing thing to see such a project actually move forward, regardless of the source material chosen.
