We’d known it was coming, and Bruce Campbell teased us plenty, but nothing brings out Ash Vs. Evil Dead like a full-barrel boomstick and chainsaw trailer. See Ash reborn to fight a new wave of Deadites, and Hail to the King by the full promo, you groovy babies!

  • You can watch the trailer for yourself above, but Bruce! Girdles! Broomstick out of the floor! Doll fight! Flying chainsaw catch! “Let’s tango, bitch!”

  • Sam Raimi announces the official premiere as Halloween, October 31, 2015. Perfect.

  • “How many of you have Starz,” asks Bruce Campbell. “The rest of you better get your shit together.”

  • Asked if Starz would allow the same violence and tone, Raimi, Bruce and especially Lucy Lawless all attest to how supportive Starz has been, even pushing Ash Vs Evil Dead to fully embrace its vision. Says Bruce, “They need to be let loose like the savage beasts that they are.” No orgy scenes for Bruce unfortunately, at least not during filming.

  • Bruce notes that even in his prime, Ash wasn’t the guy to save the world, though he appreciates that Sam Raimi can’t ride him as hard, thanks to his own age. In any case, Bruce won’t be alone anymore, and adjusts to sharing relationships with his new Deadite-fightint team. As for the age, “Maybe he has a box of Depends in his trunk, who knows? It depends.”

  • Ash may have garnered a bit more experience with the ladies over the years, though Sam notes, “Bruce is a very good actor” in that regard. Lucy joked that her contract expressly forbade a romance with Bruce, to which the man himself quipped “on-camera.”

  • Lawless’ character Ruby shares a surname with Evil Dead’s Professor Knowby, and will subsequently be “gunning for Ash.” They’re ten episodes into shooting, though Bruce assures that Ruby will fall for his charms sooner or later.

  • Sam Raimi noted that the first film couldn’t particularly afford to show its monsters, while the second was designed to encourage the audience to come up with their own visions of evil. This time around, the intent was to get back to focusing on the character of Ash, borrowing the horror tone of the first, Ash’s quirks from the second (and potentially Army of Darkness) for a “nightmarish mishmash of tones…it’s definitely very scary, and funny.”

  • Also worth noting, Sam only directed the premiere, but would return for more in a hypothetical second season. The same goes for fan-favorite Ted Raimi, who doesn’t appear this time around, but would surely get a cameo in Season 2.

  • Bruce made a game out of how many seasons the crowd hopes the series would go, seemingly capping around five. No matter what, the actor assured fans that so long as they support Ash Vs. Evil Dead, they’ll keep making more. “I have no doubt that your internet savagery will pay off.”

  • Pulling back the curtain on his franchise plan a bit, Raimi teased that he’d love to get to a point of Ash teaming up with the Evil Dead remake characters.

  • We’ll see a few stop-motion effects in the third season, though not so much in the way of claymation. “That takes more of a film budget,” says Raimi. In particular, Bruce espoused the practical effect of the “blood mortar,” an air-mortar loaded with “all kinds of viscera.”

  • A hopeful fan asks, would we see Freddy or Jason in an episode? “Only if Ash can kill both of those losers.”

  • Another asks if apart from the chainsaw, if we’d see the mechanical hand from Army of Darkness. Tellingly, Raimi reveals “It’s kind of a secret, but you won’t see THAT hand…”

So reads the official Ash Vs. Evil Dead synopsis:

Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons –personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its “Evil” grip.

The cast is led by Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead, “Burn Notice”) in the role of 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.

The first episode was written with Ivan Raimi and Tom Spezialy, with Sam Raimi also serving as executive producer alongside Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell. For those unfamiliar with the original Evil Dead, the film followed Campbell’s Ash and friends as they visited a woodland cabin, where they accidentally release demons intent on possessing the living.

There’s plenty more blood to shed before Ash Vs. Evil Dead’s fall premiere, but pull the cord on the above trailer, and stay tuned for our full write-up from the panel!

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