Though, unfortunately, it looks like it won’t be featuring Ash Williams.
In a recent Ask Me Anything on Reddit, Sam Raimi, promoting the remake of The Grudge, which he helped produce, took some time to answer one of the most obvious questions you could ask Sam Raimi: yo, what about Evil Dead?
Last we heard from the franchise, Bruce Campbell had retired from his iconic role of Ash Williams following the tragic cancellation of Ash vs. Evil Dead, and while Campbell has offered some general information about the continuation of the franchise, Sam Raimi has himself been relatively silent about it. Until now.
“Bruce, Rob and I are working with a young filmmaker who is writing a new Evil Dead story that he will direct,” Raimi said, via Comic Book Resources. “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.”
So succession really is the name of the game. Here, Raimi confirms what Campbell has been telling people, which is that a new, young filmmaker will carry the torch. Who that filmmaker is, we don’t know, unfortunately. But it’s not Fede Álvarez, who made the Evil Dead remake in 2013. We know that because Raimi addresses him directly in another ask, saying that, as for that franchise getting a sequel, “If Fede would write or direct it, yes, in a split second!”
It’s a shame that Campbell’s Ash Williams didn’t get quite the send off he deserved. But the Evil Dead continues, regardless. Somebody has to shoot all those zombies.