The Evil Dead film franchise is returning to theaters this year with Evil Dead Rise. The film marks a departure from most others in the franchise in that Bruce Campbell will not be appearing as Ash Williams. However, director Lee Cronin did confirm that Bruce Campbell has a hidden role in Evil Dead Rise!
Lee Cronin revealed this exciting detail while speaking with Empire. He confirmed this by first saying they chose to remove Ash Williams so that the film could open the possibility for other stories.
“It felt like in order to move the franchise somewhere new and to unlock the potential of the universe to tell more stories, it needed to break free [of Ash],” he began.
Though, before fans got too disappointed, he teased that Bruce Campbell has a hidden role:
“But Bruce is hidden in the movie somewhere. Bruce has a small presence in the movie. The first person to figure it out and send me a tweet, I’ll give them 50 bucks.”
He also explained that while it might not have an explicit narrative connection – the film does respect the spirit of the original franchise.
“One of the things I knew was, this movie’s got to have energy,” the director explains. “We’re coming out of a really successful spell for horror, where a lot of movies have played into the existential as maybe their primary drive. How I view the Evil Dead movies is [as] a popcorn-eating good time. Bringing it back to Evil Dead II, if there’s anything I would think about it would be the relentless creativity in that movie, to refresh the experience as you go.”
It certainly sounds as though Lee Cronin did his best to forge a new path forward for the franchise while staying faithful to what came before. Luckily we won’t have long before we get to see the film in theaters – and what hidden role Bruce Campbell has to offer.
Lee Cronin directed the film while original Evil Dead veterans Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Robert Tapert produced the film.
The film’s cast includes Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan, as well as Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, Mia Challis, and Nell Fisher.
Fans can currently expect Evil Dead Rise to be released exclusively in theaters on April 21, 2023. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates as we have them.