By the looks of it, iconic horror legend Bruce Campbell (Bubba Ho-Tep, Burn Notice) is fated to play Ash Williams yet again in other iterations of The Evil Dead. During an interview with MovieWeb about his upcoming role in Peacock’s bone-chilling fright fest, Hysteria!, Campbell was candid about whether he’d ever play Ash again in some iteration should the film’s original director, Sam Raimi (Spider-Man trilogy, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), take on the project.
“We can’t hide the movies anymore,” Campbell mused. “The last one we made [2023’s Evil Dead Rise] made the most of any Evil Dead movie, so we’d be silly to stop now. So, we’ve got two more in the pipeline and a possible animated series as well.”
It’s the latter that currently has the internet buzzing as Campbell has admitted that he’d happily lend his voice to the endeavor, adding:
My voice is not aged as much as I have, and my voice doesn’t mind saying lines of dialogue rather than throwing myself down the stairs or whatever. That’s an easier gig.
The Evil Dead Legend Goes On
To be sure, we never tire of talking about The Evil Dead. More than four decades ago, in October 1981, the original film hit movie theaters, making a star out of Campbell and establishing writer/director Sam Raimi as an epic creative force. In the original film, Campbell’s Ash Williams and his cohorts fight for their lives after the dead have been reawakened and Ash finds himself battling it out till daybreak, having to sacrifice some pals along the way.
The film, of course, spawned a gaggle of sequels. There was Evil Dead II (1987), and Army of Darkness(1992), which rounded out the original intended trilogy. The Evil Dead of 2013, directed by Fede Alvarez (Alien: Romulus), became a much-talked about remake whose post-credits scenes had fans on high alert — an older Ash is depicted in a shadowed profile and after a few beats, we hear him utter his signature catchphrase, “Groovy.”
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Meanwhile, the 2015 series Ash vs. The Evil Dead gave us 30 episodes in a continuation of the franchise, and 2023’s Evil Dead Rise paved the way for future projects. It even found Campbell in an uncredited cameo role, voicing a mysterious unnamed character who delivers an ominous warning about the dangers of the demon resurrection ritual found in that bloody, troublesome book, Naturom Demonto.
The Horror of Hysteria!
As intrigue continues to grow, Campbell, no doubt, will continue to be outspoken. In the meantime, there’s 1980s-set Hysteria!, in which the actor plays a reliable cop, who may just be the sanest guy in town. Here’s the thing: the town has gone bonkers. The show’s logline reads: “When a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the “Satanic Panic” of the late 1980s, a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts realize they can capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band, until a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported supernatural activity triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them.” Hysteria! hits Peacock October 18. Watch the trailer below.