Although he’s spent decades now tangling with Deadites, evil twins, and his own, murderous disembodied hand, the only thing that’s ever really stopped shotgun-toting badass Ashley J. Williams for long was the creeping chill of Hollywood indifference. And so, we’re sad to report, the beloved Bruce Campbell character’s most persistent enemies—frustrated TV and film executives—have finally gotten the better of him at last, with THR reporting that Starz has canceled its three-season horror comedy series Ash Vs. Evil Dead.
Admittedly, the Sam Raimi-produced TV series has seen dwindling ratings over the last year, leading the network to announce today that its third season finale, scheduled for April 29, will be its last. Campbell sounds pretty sanguine—in the “calm and happy” definition of the word, for once, rather than “covered in blood”—about the news, at least:
Ash vs. Evil Dead has been the ride of a lifetime. Ash Williams was the role of a lifetime. It was an honor to reunite with Evil Dead partners Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi to give our tireless fans another taste of the outrageous horror/comedy they demanded. I will always be grateful to Starz for the opportunity to revisit the franchise that launched our careers.
Still, if you’d asked us five years ago whether there was any chance of an Evil Dead series making its way to TV, we would have probably scoffed at you. So who’s to say we’ll never see Ash—or Pablo, or Kelly, or Ruby—ever again? Weirder things have happened, baby.