Evil Dead Spinoff Director Offers Update on New Film

Last year saw the release of the Evil Dead spin-off film Evil Dead Rise, with its financial success resulting in the announcement that director Sébastien Vaniček would be developing a new entry for the franchise, though he recently dodged offering many concrete details on the project due to how early in the scripting stages it is. While the big-screen entries in the series have included a trilogy of films starring Bruce Campbell, followed by a reboot in 2013 and then last year’s Evil Dead Rise utilizing the Necronomicon as its connective tissue to its predecessors, it’s currently unknown how, or if, this upcoming project will feature substantial connections to previous films.

When asked by Screen Rant about the upcoming film’s connections to previous chapters, Vaniček replied, “I would love to answer this question, but we are in the early process of the writing, so we have so many questions. We just wrote stuff with my co-writer, it’s the same co-writer I wrote Infested with, so I’m working with my team, I’m really glad. But we are in the process of building our story, our characters and everything, and we are chatting with each other. There’s so many ideas coming from everywhere. For the moment, we are in the sandbox, and we haven’t started to build a castle, we are just gathering the best sand, and as soon as I have the best sand, I will start to build a castle.”

Despite Fede Álvarez developing a reboot with original director Sam Raimi, star Campbell, and original producer Rob Tapert all supporting the endeavor and even producing the project, the 2013 Evil Dead failed to resonate with fans as strongly as the filmmakers had hoped and never earned a continuation. Instead, the franchise pivoted to the small screen for three seasons of Ash vs. Evil Dead.

Earlier this year, Evil Dead Rise star Lily Sullivan avoided directly confirming whether she would be returning to the series, though teased that such conversations have happened.

“There’s been many, many conversations, many alt paths, many possibilities, which are all quite whack and fun and great. And whatever ends up coming to fruition, I’m excited for it. But yeah, I can’t say anything on it though, but yeah, excited,” Sullivan previously shared with ComicBook.com. “It’s all literally up to the universe of the Evil Dead gods. In a great way, until you cross the bridge, that’s just what it is. The blessings of this industry, and the curse, you have to walk into the unknown, so people should also walk into Monolith. Look at that.”  

Stay tuned for updates on Sébastien Vaniček’s Evil Dead spinoff.

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