ASH VS EVIL DEAD: Bruce Campbell, Lucy Lawless, and Sam Raimi Preview the New Starz Series

ASH VS EVIL DEAD is coming to Starz this fall, and though the show will reunite THE EVIL DEAD star Bruce Campbell (Ash) and director Sam Raimi, they are very aware being able to step back into these roles is due to the fans of the franchise.

“The fans have driven all this,” Campbell told reporters during the show’s Television Critics Association panel. “The fans are responsible for every single bit of this. They’ve been relentless for years. The last EVIL DEAD movie was 24 years ago, 1991 — we shot ARMY OF DARKNESS. They haven’t shut up since. So no matter what we say to them or what we give them, it will never be enough, and we’re very grateful for that.”

The EVIL DEAD franchise had a 2013 film reboot (starring SUBURGATORY’s Jane Levy), but when it came time to carry on Ash’s story, finding the right partner was key.

“Part of our criteria for finding a suitor for this show was who will let us do what we need to do in an unrestricted fashion,” Campbell said. “Two out of the three EVIL DEAD movies were unrated, so it would be silly for us to rip the fans off by giving them a watered down version of this series. So the beauty of working with Starz is we have no content restriction whatsoever, and that’s vitally important as filmmakers.”

“It’s really important that we fulfill our obligations to the fans who’ve asked us to make this either as a movie or a series,” Raimi added. “But they have certain expectations. Because after three feature films and, like Bruce said, 35 years of fans following, they want particular things. And so it was very important we found a network that was willing to go to the limit, really let us go anywhere we wanted with the humor, anywhere, outrageous horror, crazy amounts of gore, which is some of the hallmarks of the EVIL DEAD films, because we had an obligation to the fans. And fortunately, Starz…I believe that they want things that the audience can’t get on regular television or regular cable. It’s very unique. And so this happened to be a very good marriage between the two of us.”

In addition to being able to tell a longer story with the show, ASH VS EVIL DEAD will include franchise newbie, Lucy Lawless (Ruby).

“We needed a powerful adversary for Ash,” Raimi shared. “Somebody that could be formidable and, really, you’d think could kick his butt. Because he’s the real monster fighter. He’s dealing with these beasts every day, slicing ’em and dicing ’em. And so we needed a human being that had some heart and soul and some gravitas and some threat to them when she wanted to pull it out. I think that’s why Lucy was a great choice.”

“It’s the most fun you can have on set anywhere in the world,” Lawless added. “It was it was hard figuring out [who] is this character…We didn’t know. So it took a while to figure out. At first it was kind of daunting…Here’s the thing, though. With all the other characters Ray Santiago (Pablo), Jill Marie Jones (Amanda), and the incredible Dana DeLorenzo (Kelly) — who are kind of like his family — because you need to see Ash in the context of other people to make it live as a series. You can’t have him and me stalking one another. But you get to see him with this kind of ragtag family.”

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ASH VS EVIL DEAD premieres on Saturday, October 31st on Starz.

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