Arielle Carver O'Neill's Brady was introduced as Ash's daughter in Ash Vs Evil Dead, but here's why it wasn't Kelly as originally planned. The original Evil Dead was shot for a tiny budget by a group of young friends, which just happened to include director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell. While the acting and story can be undeniably clunky, the movie's raw, visceral energy and explosions of gore have made it a genre classic.
Following the failure of his 1985 comedy Crimewave Raimi decided to make Evil Dead II. The second movie is something of a remake/sequel to the lo-fi original, which significantly upped the dark humor. The sequel is considered the best of the franchise and it made Bruce Campbell a cult icon. The movie was enough of a success for Universal to finance a bigger budget trilogy capper with Army Of Darkness, where Ash is sent back in time to fight an army of deadites.
While fans spent decades begging for Evil Dead 4 their prayers were eventually answered with TV series Ash Vs Evil Dead. The show debuted in 2015 and found Campbell back as demon hunter and general idiot Ash Williams. The show brought all of the gore and scares from the Raimi movies, and introduced new sidekicks Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo). The show ran for three seasons before being cancelled.
Ash Vs Evil Dead season 3 also introduced Arielle Carver O'Neill as Brandy, Ash's long lost daughter. While she was initially distrustful of her Ash - understandably - the pair eventually formed a sweet relationship. This wasn't the original plan for the series, however, which had been building towards the reveal Kelly was actually Ash's daughter. The Ash Vs Evil Dead season 2 finale originally featured Ash, who had traveled back in time for complicated reasons, getting drunk and meeting a woman in a bar.
This turns out to be a young Suzy Maxwell - Kelly's mother - and a brief encounter between her and Ash lead's Suzy becoming pregnant with Kelly. The season ended with Kelly being kidnapped, setting up a rescue mission for Ash to save his daughter in season 3. The entire season was building towards this reveal, including throwaways lines like Ash telling Kelly "Glad you're not my kid," and Ash would have given Suzy the anchor necklace worn by Kelly since the show began. Creative disagreements between Ash Vs Evil Dead producer Robert Tapert (Don't Breathe) and showrunner Craig DiGregorio led to this idea being scrapped and a new finale being written. This was apparent to fans of the show, with the season 2 finale feeling off compared to the rest of the season. The only element that was kept for season 3 was Ash having a daughter, but in the form of Arielle Carver O'Neill's Brandy instead.
The original finale for Ash Vs Evil Dead season 2 sounds much more intriguing than what ended up onscreen, but it's hard to say how fans would have reacted. Arielle Carver O'Neill also did a great job in season 3, with Brandy finding her strength throughout the crazy events of the show. It's a shame the series didn't get a least one more season to expand on her character, but with Bruce Campbell officially retired, that's unlikely.