Starz’s Ash vs. Evil Dead series doesn’t debut until this weekend on October 31, but the network is so confident in its potential success that it already greenlit a second season, meaning Bruce Campbell's titular ass-kicker will live to fight yet another day.
The news was made official via a press release from Starz that cites “strong fan, affiliate, and distributor demand” as the reason behind the early pickup. Though it’s good news for Deadites all around, it shouldn’t come as a major shocker. The series was a major draw at this year’s New York Comic-Con, where Campbell, Lucy Lawless, and more cast members were paraded out and the pilot episode was screened for fans. In addition to the positive buzz generated from this and similar events, the anticipation has been high for this series since the moment someone thought to produce it.
Furthermore, Starz still has a ways to go to catch up to the bigger original content giants, such as HBO, FX, The CW, and even Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. The network’s bigger sells right now are Outlander, Black Sails, and Da Vinci’s Demons, and Ash vs. Evil Dead has the potential to surpass all of them, given its built-in fanbase of diehards .
Craig DiGregorio will return as showrunner for Season 2, while Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Campbell will return as executive producers. In terms of casting, Campbell and Lawless, as the mysterious Ruby, are both set to return for a second go-around.
Here’s the official synopsis for Ash vs. Evil Dead:
The 10-episode first season of the half-hour series features Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead, Burn Notice) as Ash Williams; Lucy Lawless (Salem, Spartacus) as Ruby a mysterious figure who believes Ash is the cause of the Evil outbreaks; Ray Santiago (Touch, Meet the Fockers) as Pablo Simon Bolivar, an idealistic immigrant who becomes Ash’s loyal sidekick; Dana DeLorenzo (A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas) as Kelly Maxwell, a moody wild child trying to outrun her past; and Jill Marie Jones (Sleepy Hollow) as Amanda Fisher, a disgraced Michigan State Trooper set to find our anti-hero Ash and prove his responsibility in the grisly murder of her partner.
