Recently we found out that series creator Sam Raimi was returning to the ‘Evil Dead‘ universe with Bruce Campbell set to reprise his role as Ash after 23 years and he is eager to share some details of what to expect! Starz has a 10 episode series slotted for ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead‘ that will be premiering in 2015 and now we’re finally getting some hints at Ash being older and not quite the loner he traditionally has been protrayed. Comparing Ash to an actual has-been, we see the once savior and self proclaimed King of the Lands of the ‘Army of Darkness’ living in anonymity at a trailer park. It isn’t long until he is forced to come out of retirement to fight a resurgence of the Deadites when they come forth to once again attempt and take over the world.
Wondering why they are going the series route instead of a movie? According to Campbell,
Photo credit: s_bukley / Shutterstock.com“We realized if we made another movie, frankly, it would probably be too expensive. But in the format of a TV show, we could give people exactly what they wanted and expand the character and the story even more. Ash would probably have more dialogue in one season than in three movies. He’ll have to become a more fleshed-out character as well. And we never burned Evil Dead as a franchise out—it’s not like we did 13 of these movies. So we felt like, what the heck, let’s give it a try.”
Of course the series has been compared to ‘The Walking Dead’ as it is the highest rated show on television at the moment, not to mention horror. Of course, to Campbell there is no real comparison. “Walking Dead is Walking Dead, but we were kind of first,” he explains. “And I would say it’s about as big of a counterpart to Walking Dead as you could program, because Walking Dead is unrelentingly grim and hugely popular. We’re going to give people a little of the old fashioned splatstick—horror and comedy.”
However while it is slapstick, to have the horror and suspense you do need some seriousness as well:
“Horror used to be a much smaller aspect of all the different genres available. Something we’re doing is taking the horror parts very seriously. We’re not making fun of the horror aspects. And it’s going to cause Ash—this crabby middle-aged man who doesn’t want to get dragged back into this—a lot of problems. He’s not the Ash he used to be.”
How has Ash grown over the years? Well aside from aging, not so much.
“He continues being a trash-talking know-it-all who doesn’t really know anything. He’s the ultimate anti-hero. He’s a guy with no appreciable skills. He’s not a former Navy SEAL, he’s not a former CIA or FBI. He’s no special anything. He’s just a guy from S-Mart, you know? And think that’s part of what people relate too. All these super hero movies—I rather relate to a garage mechanic who gets into a sticky situation. That’s what I look forward to playing—a guy with horrible flaws. In Army of Darkness he can’t memorize three words and he’s responsible for the deaths of a 100 people—this is your lead character!”
When facing his demons, he’s got some personal ones that he will have to deal with, “Ash has survivor’s guilt. You could have a heyday with his PTSD. He’s a war vet. He doesn’t want to talk about it, and he’ll lie about that stump on his hand to impress the ladies. This is a guy who’s got some issues. He’s emotionally stunted. But he’s the guy you want in the foxhole next to you. That’s the funny thing—he’s kind of an idiot, but man, if I had to go to battle, I’d want to be next to that guy, because he’ll bring it if he has to.”
Also Ash isn’t going it alone this time! As Campbell reveals:
“It’s a threesome, which is a good number. Since it’s not cast yet, it would be silly to fully describe them. But they’re supposed to be two very good counterparts. One is a male-bonding situation; the other is father-figure deal, since Ash could have a daughter the same age as this character. Hopefully we’ll pull Ash out of his loner-veteran mode and get him back into being a human being again.”
How will the Deadites be portrayed in the series? “Yes. There always were rules and always will be rules. We do work within a boundary of what causes this to happen. We’re going along the lines of every so often, the Evil rises to test the average man to see if man is ready to rule the earth, or if the living dead have to come back. Turns out Ash is our guy, so God help us all.”
Will we revisit the past that Ash left behind in ‘Army of Darkness’?
“I have no idea. It’s early yet, we’ll see where the journey takes us. I think people are going to have a lot of fun. We’re going to keep this show constantly evolving and hopefully surprising.”
It sounds like we’re going to be getting a strong continuation of the series and once again putting Campbell, and his stuntman, through their paces.
Are you looking forward to a return of Ash in ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’? Are you glad to see Starz taking on the series? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Entertainment Weekly