“Are all men from the future loud-mouthed braggarts?” – Arthur
“Nope. Just me baby… Just me.” – Ash
In 1992, the Evil Dead trilogy came to an unlikely end in Army of Darkness, the cult comedy horror series that featured Bruce Campbell as “The Chosen One” aka Ashley J. Williams. The finale of the film left Ash back in the present as an employee of S-Mart who still had to slay the occasional Deadite
Earlier this year, word broke that Sam Raimi and Campbell will revisit the franchise with “Ash vs. Evil Dead,” a new half-hour horror/comedy series on STARZ. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly for their year-end issue, Campbell offered some details about what to expect from the series.”
“Something we’re doing is taking the horror parts very seriously,” said Campbell. “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.”
“He continues being a trash-talking know-it-all who doesn’t really know anything,” added Campbell. “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!”
Related: Bruce Campbell Will Star In ‘Ash Vs. Evil Dead’ TV Series
But Ash won’t be the only lead character in the TV series. Campbell revealed that two new characters who will join Ash in his battle against the Evil Dead.
“It’s a threesome, which is a good number,” noted Campbell. “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.”
Campbell also reiterated that the tone of the series won’t be quite as comical as Army of Darkness.
“There’s jokey horror and horror-horror,” explained Campbell. “When there’s a presence in the room, it has to be dealt with because it’s an extremely dangerous and volatile situation. Humor may come out of it, but there’s nothing funny about a demon ripping somebody’s head off. And the beauty of Starz is there’s no content issues. Let’s face it: Fans want the carnage and the mayhem. So we intend to give them quite the explosion of viscera. Most of it directed at me, unfortunately.”
Sam Raimi will direct the pilot episode of “Ash vs. Evil Dead” and the series is expected to debut on STARZ in 2015.
