Get your Neconomicon Ex-Mortis, snacks and mead from S-Mart ready: The Evil Dead is coming to television. On Friday at the San Diego Comic-Con, Sam Raimi shot this information from his boomstick all over the audience, and left them hungry for more.
That sounds far dirtier than I intended.
Raimi, who directed the first three Evil Dead movies and the Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire, excited fans by announcing that he, his brother Ivan, and Ash Williams himself, Bruce Campbell have already started work penning the series.
How this series will fit into the already-established films in terms of characters and timeline, remains to be seen, but I can’t help but be jazzed about the news, which isn’t even marred by the recent (and, in my opinion, flat) remake of the first film in 2013.
Technically, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen something resembling a sequel to the film franchise. As fans of the heroic S-Mart employee and his disregard for technology-fearful primitives know, Ash has made several comic book appearances, including tales of him heading to Europe, facing off against zombified Marvel superheroes and villains, and a crossover with Xena, another character that has had the Sam Raimi touch (not that way, you filthy people). Fans have also been teased and tantalized with rumors of a direct sequel to Army of Darkness via DVD special features, but I suppose Raimi was too busy creating his tale of the people of Oz. (And everyone wept. And wept. And wept some more.)
Raimi is currently tapped to produce a reboot of the film series Poltergeist, starring Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Moon). Completely unrelated sidenote: If Rockwell doesn’t dance at least once in this reboot, then the reboot will be a wash.
It would be fantastic if Raimi and company could somehow rework Campbell into the Ash role somehow. However, even if that’s not a possibility, the fact that Campbell is even involved keeps me from resorting to drastic measures—like cutting off my hand and replacing it with a chainsaw.