Evil Dead Rise Director Has Lots of Sequel Ideas

By Jamie Jirak

Evil Dead Rise hit theaters this weekend, and not only did it have a strong first night at the box office, but it's already the best-reviewed movie of the entire franchise. The Evil Dead franchise began in 1981 with Sam Raimi's original movie that starred Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams. Raimi and Campbell went on to make Evil Dead 2 in 1987 and Army of Darkness in 1992. The last Evil Dead film, Evil Dead (2013), was a reimagining of the original. Now, Evil Dead Rise follows a road-weary Beth (Lily Sullivan) who pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A. apartment. The sisters' reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie's building, and you can guess how things go from there. Recently, director Lee Cronin spoke with Variety and revealed his sequel ideas. 

"I certainly do. I didn't want to bait it for sequels necessarily, even though the ending could be interpreted that way. But the ending for me was closing the loop back to the beginning. The way the story is told, I've got four places I'd like to look at in terms of where to go... I'm excited for the potential of what could be next and and really hope that I can be involved in in future chapters," Cronin shared. You can check out his future ideas below:

The story behind the Book of the Dead: "We have history in this film and that's presented through the vinyl. So there's there's a story to be told there. It's not by accident."

Beth takes her chainsaw on the road: "Somebody that survives picks up the chainsaw at the end and where they might go."

The apartment building: "There's also the aftermath in this building and who encounters that. And I've often thought, 'What happens when the cleanup crew shows up?'"

Back to the woods: "Because of the opening and the closing, there's that continuation of how this evil has a gate. That brings us back into that forest context, which excites me because I love that I broke the mold, but wouldn't it be fun now if I went back to the cabin in the woods. It could be a cool journey.

"I think everything's on the table at a point like this. My focus right now is finishing what's been an amazing promotional tour and whirlwind of getting to talk and share the process of making the movie and my opinions on it," Cronin shared with ComicBook.com about the franchise's future. "And I think from there it's like, let's see how audiences really react to it. I definitely have got stories that I feel like I could tell inside this universe. But equally, I think as I've proven with this, I'm also a filmmaker with my own voice. I'm not there to necessarily serve a continuing narrative all the time and probably have made a movie for me in terms of my taste that's right at the edge, intensity-wise, because I think if I pushed it any further, it becomes something that isn't me or that I'd want to make."

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He added, "So I may look to go and do something tonally quite different next before I go back and try and push those same buttons again. But look, I'm a fan and a filmmaker and I feel a sense of ownership over those characters and the new direction for Evil Dead, so I'm definitely open-minded to looking at more."

Evil Dead Rise is now playing in theaters. 

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