Looks like producers were able to get Bruce Campbell back into fighting shape for his new Starz series, Ash Vs. Evil Dead, after all. Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive first look at the newest entry in the Evil Dead saga, which premieres this fall. Gone is the steel robotic hand built by a big-box store employee and some middle-age alchemists; the chainsaw arm is back, and Ash is looking pretty groovy in his standard blue shirt and brown pants. No sign of a boomstick, but perhaps he’s still in that seven-day waiting period:
According to EW, “Ash (who is still a stock boy) is once again ready to face his demons, and this time he’s got two folks to help him get the job done in fellow Value Stop employes Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana Delorenzo).” Apparently the mope got shitcanned from S-Mart, more than likely for stealing boxes on his day off. The life of a stock boy can’t take up most of Ash’s time, so what’s he been doing since he blasted that Deadite out of the air in 1993? “Not much!,” says Campbell. “He was perfectly happy basically doing nothing, telling lies about how he lost his hand in bars late at night.” (Why would he lie about it? The real story is much more interesting. That cute girl at the end of Army Of Darkness seemed to buy it, even if Ted Raimi didn’t.)
Campbell adds that the new series owes quite a bit to The Searchers, with Ash taking more of a backseat “John Wayne” role and letting the young kids get slapped around by Kandarian demons. That being sai,d while Ash may not be the best stock boy, he’s “still a really good monster fighter,” according to Sam Raimi who directed the pilot episode of the new series.
So how did the Deadites return? We’ll probably have to wait until the series premiere to find that out, but we here at AV Club are willing to bet that that dumbass Ash had something to do with it. After all, this is the same guy who went back to the cabin after all the undead fun the first time around.