“This series will force us to make more movies,” Bruce Campbell said today at the TCA session. “That’s only 10 hours of programming; we need eight more movies,” the Ash Vs. Evil Dead star joked about what the franchise’s zealous fans would demand. “Making a fourth movie would work. … No matter what we give them, it will never be enough.”
Onstage with Campbell, director and EP Sam Raimi — who helmed the original 1981 Evil Dead feature and two sequels — said he would be behind the camera on another pic if Campbell were in front of it. Based on the cult classic horror movies, the 10-episode, 30-minute Starz series debuts on Halloween, as was announced at Comic-Con.
Campbell and Raimi were joined on the panel today by co-star Lucy Lawless. Showrunner and fellow EP Craig DiGregorio was there too. Like Comic-Con, today’s panel was very much the Campbell show, with the actor slinging out one-liners left, right and center. “You guys are bored out of your skulls,” the former Burn Notice star told the assembled journos. Later he talked about all the medical show and cop shows on TV “making me want to hang myself.”
However, other blasts from the past were in play. “I don’t know,” Lawless said of where a Xena: Warrior Princess reboot really is, mocking stories that the series was coming back for sure.
Ash Vs. Evil Dead starts off with the three-decade-off-the-grid Ash (Campbell) pulled back into duty to combat a plague overtaking Earth. With the mix of carnage and comedy that characterized the big-screen series, the TV show has Lawless as Rudy. (Starz just released this pic of her today.) With a yet-to-be-revealed connection to the films, the character believes that Ash might be the source of the plague.
“Now Seasons 2 through 5 will be much easier because we all know each other,” Campbell said of how well the addition of Lawless and DiGregorio to the Evil Dead world has worked out. Starz hasn’t announced a second season for Ash Vs. Evil Dead – though the way the gang onstage today talked about it and at Comic-Con, it certainly feels like they see such an announcement in the future.
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