The Ash vs. Evil Dead cast and creative team made a splash when they surprised everyone with the premiere of the first episode of the upcoming Starz series during the show's panel at New York Comic Con last weekend. It seems like the new show has enough blood, demons and humor to satisfy fans of Sam Raimi's original horror film franchise featuring The Evil Dead, The Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, which is good because fans of the Evil Dead series have been clamoring to see the scary-good adventures of leading man Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) onscreen again for quite some time.
"The fans kept asking for it. And I would make Spider-Man movies. They didn't care if I made another one or not," Raimi said during a roundtable interview with several reporters at New York Comic Con Saturday. "For some reason, they always wanted another one of these, and they wouldn't stop. So, it's really about, oh we'll make a movie one time about listening to the fans and what they want and see how that works out because usually it's a very different process."
Though Ash vs. Evil Dead is sure to give fans of the franchise some serious nostalgia, it's ultimately a continuation of Ash's story, not a reboot of what we've seen the character already encounter onscreen.
"It wasn't ever about recreating what we did before," Raimi said. "It was knowing we had an audience that had followed those stories, and we needed something new now."
However, this new series doesn't try to hide the fact that things have inevitably changed since The Evil Dead hit theaters in 1981, namely that Ash is now 34 years older. We even see him tighten a girdle and put some dentures in his mouth in the trailer for the show.
"There are all these dumb action stars. Everybody's ripped," Campbell said during a roundtable interview at New York Comic Con. "To me, that's not entertaining. You need to entertain the audience. A guy that's over the hill trying to save the world from evil that he caused, that works for me. That's my kind of entertainment."
However, don't think for a second that just because Ash looks more mature in Ash vs. Evil Dead that he is more mature. In fact, he makes a huge mistake that unleashes the Deadites again on the world all these years later.
"Nothing has changed about Ash. He's still an idiot. He's still sociologically challenged. He's a little bit of a sociopath. He still doesn't play well with others. He's our leader, and he brought this upon himself, so he's an idiot," Campbell said. "That's our hero. Welcome to him. I think it's hilarious that we're doing a movie that shows that guy as a hero."
Of course, another thing that's different about this new series compared with the movies is that the usually "lone wolf" Ash will now be accompanied by two young trusty sidekicks, his Value Stop co-workers Pablo Simon Bolivar (Ray Santiago) and Kelly Maxwell (Dana DeLorenzo), both of whom may have more of an effect on Ash than he'd like to admit.
"Pablo, I think, and Kelly sort of bring humility to Ash because we know Ash as this guy who sort of only cares about himself, and in the series, you sort of get to see Ash be a little bit more of a different role. He cares more about the people that are surrounding him," Santiago said during a roundtable interview at New York Comic Con. "I think the series is about Ash owning up to be the hero that he was always meant to be, and the people that surround him support him in doing that."
DeLorenzo agreed with Santiago during the roundtable interview saying, "I think Pablo gives him heart, and she [Kelly] gives him a little bit more common sense, a voice of reason."
However, not everyone will be feeling the love toward Ash in this new series. He and his cohorts will face some fierce opposition from new characters Ruby (Lucy Lawless) and Amanda Fisher (Jill Marie Jones). As the daughter of Professor Knowby, who originally possessed the book that unleashed the Evil Dead, the Necronomicon, Ruby is looking to avenge the deaths of her family members by taking Ash down. She teams up with Amanda, a Michigan police detective who is blamed for the murder of her partner but thinks Ash is really the culprit.
"They Thelma and Louise [it]," Lawless said during a roundtable interview at New York Comic Con. "They go on a road trip to hunt him and his shambling trailer, moving across America to hunt them down."
Just as the Deadites never actually seem to die, this 10-episode installment of Ash vs. Evil Dead might not be the last we see of the series, either. Though nothing has been officially confirmed, Campbell hinted at a possible Season 2 of Ash vs. Evil Dead.
"There's no official announcement, but we've done things for a second season that they have allowed us to do, like keeping warehouses and extending leases, so all of the indications are there," Campbell said. "Look, we got a second season the minute there were 15 million views on Facebook of the trailer. That was our second season right there."
After all, if you're a fan and want more of The Evil Dead, it seems like all you need to do is ask.
Ash vs. Evil Dead premieres Oct. 31 on Starz.
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