Good things come to those that wait, and for fans of The Evil Dead franchise, the waiting is finally over. Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, the director and star of the Evil Dead series, are coming together once again to bring the continuing misadventures of Ashley J. Williams, the reluctant hero of the first three films in the popular horror series, but this time on your television screens. This summer, both Raimi and Campbell announced that they had begun work on a television continuation of the series, which would pick up just over twenty years after the end of Army of Darkness. But after years of back-and-forth answers on whether the series would continue, if at all, it seems it’s finally time for Ash to emerge as the hero once more, as THR reports that Starz has given the new series, Ash vs. Evil Dead, a straight to series order for a ten episode first season.
According to THR, the series’ story will be as follows:
Campbell reprises his role as the title character Ash, a stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last three decades 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.
So it seems almost twenty years later, Ash still can’t seem to escape his fate as the one man who has to stop the Necronomicon and its army of Deadites, which continues to stand in the way of Ash having a good time. While many remember that just last year, the series was rebooted in the Fede Alvarez film, The Evil Dead, which Campbell and Raimi produced, and while a sequel to that was planned at one time, nothing new has been said on that front in some time. Bruce Campbell’s Ash did make a cameo at the end of the film, and there was talk about doing a crossover of the Jane Levy character Mia and Campbell’s Ash in a feature film, but whether that will happen now remains to be seen.
Raimi went on to say this of the new series:
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.
Campbell followed that up as well:
”I’m really excited to bring this series to the Evil Dead fans worldwide — it’s going to be everything they have been clamoring for: serious deadite ass-kicking and plenty of outrageous humor.”
It’s great to see the duo so excited to finally returning as the ringleaders of this series, especially after all the years of back and forth on the matter. While the Dynamite comic series, as well as the Freddy vs. Jason sequel comic, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash kept our appetite for a new film at bay, in the back of our heads, we all knew we wanted to see Raimi and Campbell return to the series and give Ash another adventure. Starz is the perfect home for Ash’s continuing journey against the Evil Dead, and it’ll be great to see what everyone has in store for us this time around.
Sam Raimi will be directing the series pilot, which he is co-writing that with brother Ivan Raimi (Army of Darkness, Drag Me to Hell) and Tom Spezialy (Chuck, Reaper). Whether the three of them will be writing every episode remains to be seen, but it’s good to have the team back together again. The half hour series Ash vs. Evil Dead will be premiering sometime in 2015 on Starz. Groovy.
