Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell officially announced that the new installment of The Evil Dead franchise is titled Evil Dead Now; given the title, the franchise seems to be going in a new direction. Despite the fact that Bruce Campbell will not return, it appears that he will continue to be hands on alongside Raimi during the process. Campbell played the iconic Ash Williams in the original The Evil Dead trilogy and made an end-credit scene appearance in the 2013 Fede Álvarez reboot. Since Ash Vs. The Evil Dead television show wrapped, Campbell has officially retired the Ash character. With Ash no longer central to the plot, here is what the future could hold for the franchise.
In a recent interview, Campbell expressed that the new Evil Dead will focus on new heroes that are both men and women. Similar to Fede Álvarez’s 2013 film, it is very likely that the central character will be a woman once more. The ending of Álvarez’s Evil Dead was meant to set up for a potential sequel that would surround the aftermath of Mia Allen’s (Jane Levy) possession and battle with the evil freed from the Necronomicon. There was never a follow up on Mia’s story, so perhaps now might be the time audiences get one.
As Lovecraftian horror films and television series are on the rise, a new Evil Dead film could not come at a better time. With every announcement comes new possibilities for the franchise and where it will go in the future. There is an array of factors that hint at an all new direction for the franchise such as its director, its main character(s), and setting.
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Raimi handpicked a new director for Evil Dead Now. Lee Cronin previously released a film that caught the Evil Dead creator’s attention titled Hole In The Ground (2019). Cronin, an indie director, is known for his horror short films. Hole In The Ground was his first feature length directorial debut at Sundance Film Festival. While Evil Dead Now is rebooting the franchise and transforming it into something new, Raimi chose a director who can carry the torch of the franchise’s noteworthy independently made aesthetics.
The new movie will undoubtedly carry over common themes of the trilogy and franchise, but its greater purpose seems to be focused on creating a movie that ensures Evil Dead stays current. Historically, every hero in the franchise is an ordinary person who stumbles upon malevolent and inexplicable evils from an ancient text; these elements will very likely continue. Except, with the new movies comes a fresh beginning for Evil Dead that could transform future installments into stories that are able to stand alone or run together. Potentially, there could be multiple heroes in the franchise’s universe that will take Evil Dead out of the iconic cabin and into every landscape across the world.
The settings, characters, and situations are bound to change with Evil Dead Now. Whether or not Cronin will decide to pick up where one or more of the installments have left off is difficult to pinpoint at this current moment. Undoubtedly, he will create a new and exciting structure to which both Raimi and Campbell have given their blessing.