Last month, it was revealed that Ash vs. Evil Dead wouldn’t be returning for a fourth season, resulting in Bruce Campbell’s retirement from the titular role. With that, the horror fandom was dealt a reasonably bitter blow.
Thankfully, then, Fede Alvarez, who directed Evil Dead, a reimagining of Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult classic, performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the franchise’s corpse, two weeks removed from the Starz series’ cancellation. Via Twitter, the filmmaker queried followers and fans, apropos to whether or not they’d be interested in seeing him helm a sequel to the surprisingly sufficient 2013 remake.
Of course, those in favour of an Evil Dead 2 won. Emphatically, I might add, with 70% of the votes. Unfortunately, however, since the poll, which was far from confirmation of anything in the first place, Alvarez hasn’t provided any additional information regarding a sequel.
Concurrently, longtime producer of The Evil Dead franchise, Robert Tapert, has been discussing the idea of keeping his and Raimi’s series alive. At Motor City Comic Con, he disclosed that he and the director had hoped to reboot things with a new movie, before the series bit the dust and Campbell’s involvement was laid to rest.
“We had a really great idea for where it was going to go in the future, and it was something Sam had been talking about: rebooting a movie. What that scenario could be. And then, Bruce wrote to Sam and I one day, ‘If they don’t [renew the series], I’m retiring from Ash.’ [We asked], ‘But wait, Bruce, what about a movie?!’ [Campbell noted], ‘No, I’m retiring.’ So. We’ll see.”
From there, Tapert continued, ever so slightly teasing that a revival of the beloved franchise based on gory grandiosity is still on the table, saying “Sam and myself have been talking about what a new incarnation would be.”
Again, like Alvarez’s Twitter poll, that’s far from firm confirmation of anything, but it’s good to know that those behind The Evil Dead franchise are at least hoping to keep it going in some way, shape or form. How they’ll do that without Campbell remains to be seen, but we wouldn’t count on this being the last we see from one of horror’s most iconic brands.
