Evil Dead Reboot Director Shares Film's Unseen, Original Ending for Its Anniversary

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Filmmaker Fede Álvarez continues his tradition of celebrating the anniversary of the theatrical release of his Evil Dead reboot, this time by revealing an ending that replicates the fate of Bruce Campbell's Ash Williams from the first film. While he initially just revealed that he had developed such an ending, he then went on to share the footage of the possible ending, which only lasted for a few seconds. He also showed off a collection of Polaroids he took from the film's production that had previously never been seen. You can check out the alternate ending in his tweet below.

"Here it is. This is what was written originally. But Sam Raimi (wisely) pointed out 'after everything she's been through, she deserves to live' so I rewrote it to the actual ending. ([Jane Levy] let out one of her best screams in the movie on this take)," the filmmaker tweeted.

The current ending of the film features Mia (Jane Levy) walking away from the cabin after enduring supernatural trauma, leaving things on a more open-ended note. The filmmaker had previously teased that he had also considered ending the film with an appearance by Campbell himself, pulling up in a truck alongside Mia to offer her a ride, though ultimately opted not to use that conclusion. However, even in 2013, original director Sam Raimi had plans to bring the character back for a TV series, which would become Ash vs. Evil Dead.

"Sam wanted to have Bruce back for the TV show that came out a few years after that," Alvarez revealed to Bloody Disgusting back in 2020. "It was complex to make the movie at the time and whatever mythology we were going to create with them, and it would have been complicated for the show because Sam had his own ideas of what would happen to Ash, and he wanted to tell that story."  

Following three seasons of Ash vs. Evil Dead, the franchise has pivoted for the film Evil Dead Rise, which is expected to land on HBO Max later this year. However, Alvarez isn't entirely giving up hope on a follow-up to his reboot.

"There is definitely a chance [of a follow-up]. The problem is, we have to stop saying there is a chance, because then there's a headline the next day, 'There's a new movie coming!' and, no!" Alvarez joked to ComicBook.com last year. "This is what I can tell [you]: [producer] Rob Tapert and [director] Sam Raimi, we're like family. We get together once in a while, we had a great experience making that movie, they gave us a career in this business. We always discuss that and there was some discussion very early on about a sequel and we haven't gotten to write it, we never wrote a script, but we knew where it was gonna go and, at that point, for some reason, it didn't happen. And now it went [the Evil Dead Rise] route."  

Stay tuned for details on the future of the Evil Dead franchise.

Which ending do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

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