Bruce Campbell Offers a Candid View of the Evil Dead's Future (2024)

Known for playing the brash and sarcastic Ash Williams in the Evil Dead franchise, Bruce Campbell has never been one to dance around an opinion, even when it comes to the beloved horror franchise created by Sam Raimi back in 1981. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Campbell was asked what the future holds for Evil Dead, and as usual, he didn’t hold back.

"The future is two more damn movies. We've got two new fabulous directors that have two new scripts in the shoot, and we think we've suckered a studio into coughing up the dough for both, since they seem to still make money."

Those "two more damn movies" were announced earlier this year, and come by way of director Francis Gallupi, who helmed this year’s indie hit The Last Stop in Yuma County, and Sébastien Vaniček, who took point on 2024’s creepy crawly spider movie, Infested. Both have been tapped to put their own spin on the Evil Dead franchise, introducing audiences to new characters that will no doubt find a way to get their hands on the Sumerian Book of the Dead and summon a new crop of Deadites.

Evil Dead Rise

Where to Watch

• stream
• rent
• buy

*Availability in US

Release Date

April 21, 2023

Director

Lee Cronin

Cast

Alyssa Sutherland , Lily Sullivan , Morgan Davies , Nell Fisher

Main Genre

Horror

Campbell would go on to say that the key to the franchise moving forward is to not take so long in between movies, as they clearly have a rabid fan base that wants to consume them more often. It was 10 years between Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead and Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, and for Campbell, that just won’t do, given how inexpensive the films are to make.

"The funny thing is, the Evil Dead movies, the last one made $140 million, and the Evil Dead movies don't usually make that much money. They're cheap, so they don't have to make that much — but now that they're making real money, it's kinda hard to look away. And we want to do it — the last one was 10 years ago, Fede [Álvarez’s reboot] was 2013! So we want to get a little more of a pipeline for folks who still follow it, who want to see it. They want to see it in the new incarnation!"

While Campbell won’t be returning to the franchise in a live-action role anytime soon, saying, "We're out of the cabin, Sam [Raimi] doesn't have to direct, I don't have to star as Ash," he did mention that he will be returning to voice the iconic character for the upcoming Evil Dead animated series that’s currently in development.

Bruce Campbell Is Ready To Get Down With the Devil

Turning from one devil to another, Bruce Campbell is set to star in the upcoming Peaco*ck series, Hysteria!, in which he plays a small town sheriff dealing with a string of murders during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. It’s a role that hearkens back to Ash Williams in a way, seeing how both characters are placed in a fish-out-of-water scenario and have to figure their way out of it. It’s that aspect that initially drew Campbell to the part.

"You want to put weird sh*t in the hands of someone who can't handle it. Like with Ash [from Evil Dead], he has no formal training whatsoever. He's not military, he's not CIA; he's like a garage mechanic that's out to save the world. That interests me!"

It interests us too, as we can’t wait to see how he brings his new character to life in what promises to be a fun romp back to the '80s to remind us how crazy things were back then. Then again, considering current events, things really haven’t changed all that much.