Evil Dead Rise: Bruce Campbell Teases the Importance of the Necronomicon in New Sequel

Aside from the 2013 reboot, the driving force behind all of the adventures in the Evil Dead franchise has been Bruce Campbell's Ash Williams, but with the actor having officially retired from the role back in 2018, he has teased that the upcoming sequel Evil Dead Rise will tie heavily into the importance of the Necronomicon. The book did play a major part of 2013's Evil Dead, though it also unfolded in a cabin similar to the one featured in the first two films, with that film possibly failing to make a major impression because of how similar it felt to its predecessors, with the exception of Campbell's Ash. While the Necronomicon will be an important part of the new film, the adventure moves to an entirely new setting.

"People can actually call it what [they] want: sequel, remake, reimagining. It really is just another Evil Dead movie," Campbell shared with Entertainment Weekly. "It's book-centric. It's all about [the Necronomicon]. Where does this book wind up and what happens to it over the millennia? In this case, it's set in the city, it's no more cabin in the woods. It's entirely different, unsuspecting heroines who are going to save the day. It's filming now in New Zealand, with some of their amazing crews down there and they're well into it. Rob Tapert is the hands-on producer and we're all very involved in the script. We all jump in at various times to chime in. But, yeah, the three of us are very involved."

Original director Sam Raimi is also serving as a producer on the upcoming film, who also collaborated with filmmaker Fede Alvarez on the 2013 reboot. Evil Dead Rise is being directed by Lee Cronin.

"For me, the key thing I kept reminding myself of, when you're in the trenches and you're developing something, was to make sure it's a roller coaster," Cronin shared with ComicBook.com last year about his approach to the film. "To make sure that it has twists and turns and that it's visceral and engaging. To sum all that up, to come back to what I just said, I wanted to create a roller coaster of terror. That was really the key for me. my memories of Evil Dead, when I watched them at a young age, always marveling at 'how does this even exist?' It just continues to poke at my brain and refresh every time I watch it. So to boil it down to an even simpler thing was that it's experiential. It has to be a horror experience. And that's the key and that's what I'm trying to achieve with this."

Stay tuned for details on Evil Dead Rise.

Are you looking forward to the new film? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!