Just by having Bruce Campbell around in the titular leading role, the Starz horror comedy Ash vs Evil Dead has one of the best casts on television, and everyone else involved with Season 1 helped make it truly fantastic. But somehow – somehow! – the producers have managed to up the ante for Season 2, bringing in the iconic actor Lee Majors to play Ash’s father, while actor and creator Sam Raimi’s brother Ted Raimi has also signed up.
As the pieces are still being put in place for what audiences can expect from Ash’s next batch of blood-soaked exploits, there wasn’t any further information to be extracted from Lee Majors’ casting announcement. But if we’re being realistic, finding out that he’s Ash Williams’ father is probably one of the all-time best character descriptions that has ever existed. We’ve been watching Ash deal with deadites for 35 years now, and we’ve never really known anyone in his family outside of his sister Cheryl, the immortal “raped by trees” character in the original film as played by Ellen Sandweiss. In the comics, Ash’s grandfather came up, but news of a father is huge. And that Majors will play him is extremely groovy.
As far as Ted Raimi’s character is concerned, he gets the bare bones description of being “Ash’s childhood best friend,” which could mean any number of things. Ash’s Michigan-centered childhood was not a normal period for the boy, as he was born the Chosen One, after all. I hope that Raimi appearing in Ash’s turmoil-filled current-day life is also accompanied by flashbacks to Ash as a kid, because that would be amazing. I want that kid from the Peter Pan Geico commercials to play him, as aggravating as that ad is.
Lee Majors has been a television and movie staple since the 1960s, and is easily most remembered for playing Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man, though he actually appeared in more episodes of the also beloved 1980s action series The Fall Guy. He’s been active in recent years, popping up in the final season of Raising Hope and Dallas, and he’ll soon be seen in films such as Spring Break ‘83, Almosting it and Victory by Submission.
Serving as another weird way that Ash vs Evil Dead connects to the original film trilogy, Ted Raimi appeared in all three Evil Dead movies in different roles usually covered in makeup. Also notable for his work on shows such as SeaQuest 2032 and Xena: Warrior Princess, which shares an executive producer and co-star in Rob Tapert and Lucy Lawless, respectively.
I loved the show from the first episode on, and I can’t help but think it’ll just get better as time goes by. Knowing that two excellent actors like Majors and Raimi are involved only supports my views. Expect for Season 2 to hit at some point this fall, probably in October.
