Deadites unite, as the groovy man himself comes back to kick some serious ass in the new Starz series, Ash vs The Evil Dead. At Saturdays Comic Con, Ash (Bruce Campell) and the gang got together at Hammerstein Ballroom to discuss the new series and even surprised everyone that came with the first episode itself! Spoiler: it was amazing.
While the cast couldn’t divulge much information, Sam Raimi (creator of The Evil Dead franchise) and the new cast dropped a few tasty tidbits for us to keep us satisfied and revving up our chainsaws for the new show. So here is a rundown of a few important things to know about this groovy panel.
Six Favorite Moments from Ash vs. The Evil Dead
Same old Deadites, Same old Ash.
While the show takes place much, much later than its predecessors, it’s still the same old Evil Dead we are used to. While time has passed, Ash remains the same and it is just great. Making sexist remarks, in the most “tasteful” way imaginable and just being overly self confident, its just the same old Ash the fans are used to and it was a delight to see much hadn’t chnaged. When one fan asked about all the abuse Campell’s character gets in the franchise, Raimi joked that, “You wanna give the kids what they want!”
Are we getting an Evil Dead feel or an Evil Dead 2 feel?
Fans were mildly considered about this from day one since the series was announced. Would they take it straight up horror or straight up comedy? Raimi confirmed that the tone they want is somewhere in the middle, but adding a lot more gore and horror to it to make it even more fantastic. And after seeing the first episode folks, I can tell you it’s a perfect mix.
Will there be any Army of Darkness continuations to the future sequence?
On the special edition DVD’s of Army of Darkness, fans were treated to an alternate ending of a futuristic world Ash is sent to. This is the ending that is preferred by both Raimi and Campell, so its only natural for a fan to ask if we would see this be done at all in the series. Showrunner DiGregorio remained tight lipped but said, “I’d say don’t rule it out. Maybe not right away, but don’t rule it out.”
Can we top the films gore?
While again everyone on the panel remained tight lipped, DiGregorio did say a delightful deli slicer scene is in the near future that would make some true gore fans of the series pretty damn pleased.
Xena and the Evil Dead
No, its not the dream crossover you were thinking of, but Lucy Lawless did offer some news about her character Ruby who will have some major vendetta feels for Ash this season (due to a family connection from the prior films), and while Lawless is confident she is a good match for Ash, Bruce feels she has no clue who she is dealing with when it comes to badass Ash and his chainsaw.
Legal issues suck.
While plenty of footage from the first Evil Dead films was shown during the panel, Army of Darkness was notably missing. When a fan asked about this, Raimi explained that because Army of Darkness is from another movie making company they don’t have the rights for it….yet.
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