Well, it looks like it’s officially the end of an era as a true movie icon puts down the chainsaw for the final time.
Yes, although he’s hinted at it before, Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell, who has played the lovable anti-hero Ash Williams for over four decades, has finally confirmed (for real this time) that he’s stepping away from the deadite-killing business.
Aged 68 and battling cancer – though winning that battle, thank God – Campbell has in the past teased he would step away from the franchise, though he’s reneged several times too, but it seems that his age and health – and desire to pursue other projects – have finally drawn a line under him returning as Ash.
Tidbit:
In the most recent Evil Dead movie, Evil Dead Burn, we get a glimpse of a picture of Campbell on the staircase of the house, the implication being that he may be Benjamin Price, the family’s grandfather, or perhaps, he’s Ash Williams and is also on the staircase for some reason.
So… does Bruce Campbell/Ash Williams cameo in Evil Dead Burn? I have the answer…
However, it seems that it’s not a sly nod in any way other than being a homage to Campbell. While we’ve been trying to work out the connection and how it connects Ash to this movie, Campbell himself says he knew nothing about it: “[It wasn’t me] to my knowledge, not to my knowledge.” he also confirmed that he “was not that involved in Burn“.
Does this mean we still can’t have our headcanon about what the picture means? What do you think?
“Ash is done,” the star says in a new interview.
He goes on to say that he will “not [be] going to do any animated voice work” – he himself had previously said that he was involved in an Evil animated project in the past – and goes on that, should they need his voice, they “can get Joe Ash soundalike,” adding that “there are ways to [recreate my voice] now.”
In a separate interview, Campbell reflects on the Evil Dead franchise and how it has evolved over the years and he makes a point that I very much agree with… the franchise could really do with bringing back some of the humour that made it a standout in the horror genre for fans of horror and humour alike.
Although the first Evil Dead was a white-knuckle horror, with Evil Dead II and then Army of Darkness, Campbell and director Sam Raimi injected more and more humour and slapstick into the universe, with some stomach-churning scenes followed by the best slapstick since the Mark Brothers and it was a formula that worked and was firmly carried on into the Ash Vs Evil Dead TV series.
However, by the time Fede Alvarez came to the franchise with 2013’s Evil Dead (a movie I love, by the way), the humour was put on the back burner, and the emphasis firmly was placed on the terror of the tale, a focus which has continued with Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead Burn and there’s no denying that, as great as these have been – and they have – they seem to be missing what made The Evil Dead what it was over the years.
And now, as he steps away from the franchise, Campbell is saying he hopes that future instalments move back to that a bit more: “I’d like more humor back in. The three features (Evil Dead, Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead Burn) have been mostly humorless, and I personally have a problem with that. There’s no point for these to get too grim. You can be scary without being grim.”
Adding that a big part of that is the hero – unknowingly saying the series isn’t as good without him (and it isn’t) – he goes on: “A little more humor wouldn’t kill you and one hero that you really can root for. Ash is an idiot, but you want him to survive.”
Bruce Campbell returning to Evil Dead in animated series as two new live-action movies confirmed
He goes on to say that the new movies could look better too: “Modern filmmakers love to color their movies like a David Fincher movie, like a hospital room, you know? Gray-green, like a garage. Garage lighting. And so, okay, it’s a choice. It’s not mine. I think even a horror movie can look pretty. Why not throw them off? Make it all look pretty and wonderful, and then let them have it.”
With one more Evil Dead movie, Evil Dead Wrath, set for release on April 7th, 2028, Campbell seems optimistic about it being a winner: “Wrath will be good, because I saw that filmmaker’s first movie [Francis Galluppi, The Last Stop in Yuma County), and it was really cool, and really smart, and really well thought out. That’s half the battle.”
We know that Wrath will be set in the 1970s and will likely be a prequel to even the first Evil Dead movie and will be a trilogy closer with the last two instalments but where the series goes next, we don’t know yet… but I hope that, just as Cambell says, it will remember that the chuckles were just as important as the screams in the Evil Dead franchise and, while no-one will ever replace Campbell’s Ash Williams, let’s hope they try to get a loveable lead that can take the reigns and run the franchise into the furute it still firmly deserves.
Hail to the king, baby, hail to the king.
Source: Screenrant & Men’s Journal
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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