Anna Daniels
Who could have imagined that the scrappy little 1981 horror movie The Evil Dead would have spawned a franchise that fans are still obsessed with in 2020?
The obsession continues after three films, a remake, video games, comics, a musical, and a TV series, and in a recent Reddit AMA promoting the new version of The Grudge, director Sam Raimi says that a new Evil Dead is currently in the works. And separately, Raimi indicates that he still wants to reunite with franchise star Bruce Campbell for another Evil Dead sequel…but it seems like that will only happen if Campbell decides to un-retire the character of Ash Williams.
The Playlist pointed us to this Reddit post where Raimi was answering questions from fans, and naturally, someone asked if audiences would ever see a final Sam Raimi Evil Dead movie. Here’s how the director responded:
“Bruce, Rob [Tapert] and I are working with a young fillmaker [sic] who is writing a new Evil Dead story that he will direct. As for me…. I would love to direct a new Evil Dead movie… but I’d really like to do it with Bruce. And he says he’s retired the character. I hope not.”
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it was only about six months ago that Raimi said he and his collaborators were throwing around a couple of ideas for future movies. At that time, Raimi implied that they were considering two options: continuing the Bruce Campbell-starring original Evil Dead timeline, and/or making a sequel to Fede Alvarez‘s 2013 remake of Evil Dead which starred Jane Levy.
“I would be thrilled if Bruce Campbell changed his mind about retirement, would come back for the original ‘Evil Dead’ line,” Raimi said at the time. “But if not, I’m very happy to work with, if Fede would come back and make the sequel… but he’s such a big shot now. He’s so successful, an artist in demand, that I don’t think he’d want to do that.”
But now that several months have passed, it seems like the plan has changed and a new writer/director is coming on board for the new Evil Dead story. Will that be a movie, or another TV show? Will it continue the storyline from Alvarez’s loose remake, or will it be a new series that adopts the same title and remixes the story yet again? And will Bruce Campbell decide to bring Ash Williams back to the big screen? Stay tuned, because someone will surely ask Raimi those questions the next time he makes the promotional rounds.
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