Bruce Campbell — the actor arguably best known for his role as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead B-movie horror franchise — apparently has no desire to return to his iconic character and plans to "hang up his chainsaw," nearly 30 years after he first stepped into the role.
Speaking with Collider, the actor noted that Evil Dead films and series as they have been traditionally presented will be a thing of the past going forward. Instead, the actor intends to retire his character — citing physical injuries, and bad ratings on recent iterations.
"I'm done playing Ash, so that determines a lot of where we go with the franchise without that character, but there are more stories," Campbell began.
He elaborated:
We're doing it [Necronomicon]-focused these days. That darn book gets around, and that's how we play it. That book wound up in an urban environment with a single mom, so let's see what happens. It's fun to fiddle with it. There's not gonna be any traditional form of Evil Dead anymore. Ash is gone. I've retired the character because I physically just can't do him anymore, so why bother? Why do I do it? It's time to hang up the chainsaw.
Campbell continued:
I've got nothing else to give. The three seasons [of Ash vs Evil Dead] were the longest seasons of my life. If you saw the emails pleading with various directors that were like, "Hey, my knee's not working right. Be careful about tomorrow. Let's have the stunt guy nearby. Hey, I can't run anymore." It just was an endless physical struggle.
I'm really glad we did it because we saw Ash's home, we went into his bedroom, we met his girlfriends, we met his daughter that we never knew he had and that he never knew he had, and we met his father, played by the great Lee Majors. I feel we really pushed all the buttons and he fulfilled his destiny written in that ancient book. He was the guy destined to defeat evil in the past, present and future, and he took off with a hot robot chick at the end to go kick in the future. What else do you need? We knew the ratings were bad. We knew, going into the last season, that we had to have an end because we didn't think Starz was gonna re-up us and we were right. So, thank God we did that.
Campbell is due to appear in a voice acting role for next year's Evil Dead: The Game, and is credited as executive producer alongside Raimi on the forthcoming Evil Dead Rise, directed by Lee Cronin. Likewise, he and Raimi have lined up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is also due to arrive in 2022.
Speaking with Collider, the actor noted that Evil Dead films and series as they have been traditionally presented will be a thing of the past going forward. Instead, the actor intends to retire his character — citing physical injuries, and bad ratings on recent iterations.
"I'm done playing Ash, so that determines a lot of where we go with the franchise without that character, but there are more stories," Campbell began.
He elaborated:
We're doing it [Necronomicon]-focused these days. That darn book gets around, and that's how we play it. That book wound up in an urban environment with a single mom, so let's see what happens. It's fun to fiddle with it. There's not gonna be any traditional form of Evil Dead anymore. Ash is gone. I've retired the character because I physically just can't do him anymore, so why bother? Why do I do it? It's time to hang up the chainsaw.
Campbell continued:
I've got nothing else to give. The three seasons [of Ash vs Evil Dead] were the longest seasons of my life. If you saw the emails pleading with various directors that were like, "Hey, my knee's not working right. Be careful about tomorrow. Let's have the stunt guy nearby. Hey, I can't run anymore." It just was an endless physical struggle.
I'm really glad we did it because we saw Ash's home, we went into his bedroom, we met his girlfriends, we met his daughter that we never knew he had and that he never knew he had, and we met his father, played by the great Lee Majors. I feel we really pushed all the buttons and he fulfilled his destiny written in that ancient book. He was the guy destined to defeat evil in the past, present and future, and he took off with a hot robot chick at the end to go kick in the future. What else do you need? We knew the ratings were bad. We knew, going into the last season, that we had to have an end because we didn't think Starz was gonna re-up us and we were right. So, thank God we did that.
Campbell is due to appear in a voice acting role for next year's Evil Dead: The Game, and is credited as executive producer alongside Raimi on the forthcoming Evil Dead Rise, directed by Lee Cronin. Likewise, he and Raimi have lined up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is also due to arrive in 2022.