Fans of the original Evil Dead trilogy have been waiting for over 20 years to see the unlikely hero Ash Williams back at the forefront of kicking monster asses. The wait is finally over, relatively speaking, as Starz has officially ordered to series Ash vs. Evil Dead from franchise creator Sam Raimi. Load your boomsticks with confetti and blast them into the sky.
While it would be amusing to fool you guys into thinking Raimi & Co. were casting someone else besides Bruce Campbell to play Ash, that would just be cruel. Campbell and his iconic jawline are indeed coming back to reprise the role of humanity’s chainsaw-handed savior. And no, they won’t be trying to shoehorn the 56-year-old actor into playing a younger version of himself.
Here’s how the plot will go, according to the press release.
Bruce 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.
Can you imagine Ash just living a normal life, going shopping at the S-Mart for groceries and whatnot? It is going to be amazing to witness his return, and the fact that we’ll get ten episodes of it makes me all the more ecstatic. Raimi and Campbell first talked about an Evil Dead TV series back in July, but they’ve both been talking about Army of Darkness sequels for ages, so it’s forgivable if no one actually expected it to become a reality. Someone must have read the Necronomicon in the perfect way or something.
Raimi and his filmmaker brother Ivan are writing the series, along with Tom Spezialy, who has written and produced shows like Reaper, Manhattan and Desperate Housewives. The first episode will be directed by Sam Raimi himself, lending more credibility to it. He’ll also be executive producing alongside Campbell and longtime producer partner Rob Tapert. Here’s how Raimi puts it.
Evil Dead has always been a blast. Bruce, Rob and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to tell the next chapter in Ash’s lame, but heroic saga. With his chainsaw arm and his ‘boomstick,’ Ash is back to kick some monster butt. And brother, this time there’s a truckload of it.”
Even with all the horror that has taken over TV in the past year or two, only a few series have actually gone with a “monster” approach, with most choosing to focus on the horror of humanity itself. Ash doesn’t have time for that mess, and no one has time to wait around for a sequel to the completely forgettable big screen remake from last year. We want more classic Evil Dead shenanigans now!
We’ll still have to wait around, of course, but Starz is planning on bringing all ten episodes of Ash vs. Evil Dead to audiences in 2015.
