Bruce Campbell Reveals Evil Dead 4 Title, Evil Dead Now

Evil Dead Icon Bruce Campbell has some updates for fans about the upcoming Evil Dead 4. In a new interview, Campbell let it be known that he and Evil Dead 4 writer/director Lee Cronin are taking steps forward. "We're just getting off the phone with Lee Cronin, who is writing and directing the next Evil Dead," Campbell told Empire. "It's called Evil Dead Now. Sam handpicked Lee – he did a cool movie called The Hole In The Ground. We're going to get that sucker out as soon as practical."

Campbell previously indicated that Evil Dead 4 could start shooting by the end of the year - of course, that was back in February before the coronavirus pandemic brought Hollywood to a standstill. Hearing this update from Campbell will probably make a lot of fans happy - even if (just to be clear) Campbell himself won't be returning to play Ash. The actor made it clear that Evil Dead 4 will follow a new hero - or rather heroine, in a similar fashion to Fede Alvarez's 2013 reboot. As Bruce Campbell told fans at the Rock and Shock convention:

"It's okay to pass it along to another idiot to try and stop evil from destroying the world. One idiot tried ⁠— he did pretty good. It's time to let other innocent people with no skills try to save the world. And there's more stories to tell.

...So we think we have a cool premise. We have a new filmmaker that Sam Raimi has hand-chosen. So he's very involved in it. Will be involved in the story. And we'll try and make sure the actors don't completely suck. And then we're gonna make another one, yeah. There's lots of stories…creepy books…lots of people to torment."

Bruce Campbell was director Sam Raimi's leading man for the original Evil Dead trilogy, starring as Ashley "Ash" J. Williams. After Army of Darkness ended the trilogy in 1992, Campbell came back as Ash to star in the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series, which ran from 2015 - 2018 for three seasons on Starz. That series served as a sequel to the original trilogy, meaning that Ash's story has gotten a pretty good extension, already. At this point, it's perfectly understandable why Bruce Campbell would only do an ironic Easter egg cameo, at most, in a future Evil Dead movie.

The 2013 Evil Dead definitely revitalized the franchise for another run (leading to Ash vs. Evil Dead), so hopefully, this new Lee Cronin vision can do the same.