Update: Cronin has confirmed the story on Twitter. Here's his tweet followed by the original story below.

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/curleecronin/status/1270306514859888645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/EMBED_TWITTER]

Thirty-nine years after the first film's debut, Evil Dead is very much alive. Speaking to Empire, the splatter-horror franchise's steel-chinned leading man Bruce Campbell confirmed that a fourth entry, titled Evil Dead Now, is a go. Lee Cronin, the writer/director behind last year's The Hole in the Ground, has apparently been "handpicked" by Sam Raimi himself to write and direct the film.

“We’re just getting off the phone with Lee Cronin, who is writing and directing the next Evil Dead,” Campbell said. “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.”

Although it sounds like Campbell is involved behind the camera, the actor noted that Ash Williams won't be plugging the ol' chainsaw back in for Evil Dead Now. Here's what he said:

ash-vs-evil-dead-bruce-campbell-05
Image via Starz

“From this point forward, they kind of have to stand on their own. Which is fine. And liberating. You could have different heroes, different heroines in this case. This one’s gonna be a little more dynamic...We just want to keep the series current. And the mantra, really, is that our heroes and heroines are just regular people. That’s what we’re going to continue.”

The first Evil Dead, written and directed by Raimi for about $350K, debuted in 1981 and kicked off decades of Deadite-slashing good times. The sequel/soft reboot, Evil Dead 2, added a hefty dose of slapstick to the proceedings in 1987, followed by the time-hopping, medieval-tinged Army of Darkness in 1992. The franchise lay dormant until filmmaker Fede Alvarez remade the title in 2013—a movie that, against all odds, turned out to be one of the best horror films of the last ten years—and the Campbell-starring Ash vs. Evil Dead debuted in 2015 on Starz, where it ran for three seasons.

For more on Evil Dead Now, here are the first details from back in January.