Be Excellent To Each Other

Sam Raimi's Evil Dead TV Series Lives
Ash returns... to the small screen

Sam Raimi announced at Comic-Con this year that he, his brother Ivan and Bruce Campbell were working on an Evil Dead spin-off TV series. They offered no further details, but now we know that US cable channel Starz has ordered the show, called Ash Vs. Evil Dead.

Their regular cohort, producer Rob Tapert is also aboard the show, which will see Campbell back as Ash and returning to his usual Deadite-thwacking ways for a weekly dose of madness across 10 episodes of 30 minutes each, some time next year. Raimi, who will direct the pilot and naturally set the tone for the series is at work on the first script with Ivan, and they’ve also hired Chuck veteran Tom Spezialy to oversee the show as executive producer.

“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,” says Raimi in a statement.

Campbell is also thrilled to be returning to his signature role. "I'm really excited to bring this series to the Evil Dead fans worldwide – it's going to be everything they have been clamouring for: serious Deadite ass-kicking and plenty of outrageous humour,” said Campbell.

Starz feels like a good fit for the franchise, which has always prided itself on OTT gore moments and madness: with fewer creative restrictions than broadcast TV across the pond, and an established working relationship with Raimi and co after Spartacus, it sounds like Ash’s continuing adventures are in good hands (or hand plus chainsaw?) and will hopefully make it across the ocean not long after the show’s US premiere.

Isn't he getting on a bit?

Groovy: 'Evil Dead' TV Show Starring Bruce Campbell Will Premiere in 2015
"Ash is back to kick some monster butt," director Sam Raimi says. "And brother, this time there’s a truckload of it"

It's official: Cult horror classic The Evil Dead will rise again as a TV series next year on Starz. Movie director Sam Raimi, who made the original movie in 1981 and its two sequels (Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness), will executive produce the series, according to Entertainment Weekly, and will write and direct its first episode. Actor Bruce Campbell, who starred in the three movies and made a cameo in the 2013 Evil Dead reboot, will reprise his role as Ash Williams.

"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," Campbell said in a statement.

"Evil Dead has always been a blast," Raimi said. "Bruce, Rob [Tapert, executive producer] 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."

The show will find Ash, complete with his chainsaw arm, facing off against a plague of "Deadites," the demonic creatures from the movies. "Ash is finally forced to face his demons – personal and literal," the show's logline said. "Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its 'Evil' grip."

Raimi teased fans with the notion of a show at San Diego Comic-Con this past July. At the time, the director said he was working with Campbell and his brother, Ivan Raimi, on scripts. Ivan co-wrote Army of Darkness with Sam.

Sam Raimi, who directed the Spider-Man movies in the mid 2000s and Oz the Great and Powerful last year, previously executive produced Starz's series of Spartacus shows.