evil dead ash face

Just so we don’t forget that miraculous things do occur in this bleak and meaningless universe, Sam Raimi is making an Evil Dead show, with the fist-pumpingly awesome title of Ash vs. the Evil Dead. Bruce Campbell will be back as everyone’s favorite boomstick-toting S-Mart employee, and will be kicking all sorts of Deadite ass later this year. Starz will be broadcasting this future Emmy winner, and have announced some of the characters that will be joining Mr. Williams’ fight against the Army of Darkness.

THR has the scoop on Ash’s co-star, Jill Marie Jones, who will play, “Amanda Fisher, a disgraced Michigan state trooper who, following the grisly murder of her partner, sets out to find Ash and prove his responsibility for the crime. But as she soon learns, Ash and his cohorts may be mankind’s only hope against the plague of the evil dead.”

I figure this will be the character that the norms can connect to, and that seems like a smart play considering the show will need to branch out beyond the fanbase. Ash will also have a “Sancho Panza” type sidekick played by Ray Santiago, which sounds perfectly suited for Raimi and Campbell to hang some of their trademarked goofball humor onto. Less exciting is Dana DeLorenzo as “Kelly Maxwell, a moody wild child trying to outrun her past.” Well, it can’t all be home runs.

I was pretty lukewarm on the recent Evil Dead movie (don’t get me wrong, the effects were a maniacal joy), and I hope this series will be a return to the kookier aspects of the franchise. I also want Raimi to come back strong after the paycheck-y Oz the Great and Powerful. Visually, he’s still one of our best directors out there, and he deserves better than what he’s been dealt in the last few years. …Did anyone even see that Rake show?